The United Kingdom today announced £160 million (€182 million) to help the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI) develop a rapid vaccine.
The British government hopes the money will help Cepi with the goal of reducing the time needed to develop new vaccines to 100 days over the next five years, including combating new variants of covid-19.
The donation was announced a week before the UK organizes the International Epidemic Preparedness Summit, which will take place in London on 7-8 March.
According to the British government, since Cepi was launched in 2018, it has donated £276 million (€330 million).
In January, Sebi announced that he had received $300 million (265 million euros) from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Wellcome, and that the goal was to reach $3,500 million (3,000 million euros).
Secretary of State Liz Truss urged “other potential donors to step up and fund” this work, which is vital to help prevent future pandemics, and “save millions of lives and prevent billions of dollars in economic losses.”
The London Summit, which aims to raise funds for vaccine research and development by Cepi, will bring together scientific and health figures in person and on the ground, including WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Senior Medical Advisor to the President of the United States, Anthony Fauci, and researcher Sarah Gilbert , which developed the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine.
