CEPI and PAHO collaborate to boost regional preparedness against diseases with epidemic or pandemic potential

6 Feb 2024; Oslo, Norway; Washington D.C, USA: The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to strengthen collaboration between the two organisations as they strive to enhance regional epidemic and pandemic preparedness, and to support infectious disease prevention and response and greater equity in access to vaccines and other health technologies in the Americas.

The partnership will enable the two organizations to share technical expertise, knowledge and experience and to strengthen support to Member States and partners in the Region in areas related to vaccine research and development and in the rapid deployment of vaccines against emerging infectious diseases.

Additionally, the organisations seek to further enhance disease surveillance, vaccine manufacturing and research and clinical trial capacity in Latin America and the Caribbean. This will support equitable and timely access to vaccines and health technologies as part of epidemic and pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. CEPI and PAHO will further explore how best to leverage their respective expertise and resources to achieve these shared goals, identifying synergies to support projects of mutual interest without duplicating efforts or resources.

This new Memorandum of Understanding builds on previous fruitful collaborations over the years between CEPI and PAHO, including to foster technology transfer to facilitate regional vaccine manufacturing and supply.

Richard Hatchett, Chief Executive Officer of CEPI, said, “CEPI is delighted to formalise this new relationship with PAHO. This partnership will enable both organisations to draw on the strengths of the other and help to fortify our defences against emerging infectious diseases across the Americas. It is through global partnerships, like this one with PAHO, that we can forge a pathway to a pandemicfree future, one where collaboration becomes the catalyst for stronger global health security.”

Jarbas Barbosa, PAHO Director: “A key lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic is the need to ensure more equitable access to vaccines and health technologies for countries in Latin America and the Caribbean,” PAHO Director Jarbas Barbosa said. “This collaboration aims to support efforts to increase regional vaccine development and manufacturing capacity in the Region and ensure countries are better prepared to handle present and future health emergencies.”

Notes to Editors

About CEPI

CEPI was launched in 2017 as an innovative partnership between public, private, philanthropic and civil organisations. Its mission is to accelerate the development of vaccines and other biologic countermeasures against epidemic and pandemic disease threats and enable equitable access to them. CEPI has supported the development of more than 50 vaccine candidates or platform technologies against multiple known high-risk pathogens and is also advancing the development of rapid response platforms for vaccines against a future Disease X. Central to CEPI’s pandemic-beating five-year plan for 2022-2026 is the ‘100 Days Mission’ to compress the time taken to develop safe, effective, globally accessible vaccines against new threats to just 100 days.

About PAHO

PAHO is the specialized health agency of the Inter-American System and serves as the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for the Americas. Established in 1902, PAHO is the world’s oldest international health agency and works with countries in the region to improve and protect people’s health. The organization supports countries in tackling communicable and noncommunicable diseases and in responding to emergencies and disasters, and provides technical cooperation to strengthen health systems and ensure equitative access to healthcare.