BRIEF—CEPI supports coronavirus vaccine development

A new partnership between the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and VBI Vaccines will seek to develop vaccine candidates against coronavirus variants.

CEPI will provide up to $33 million, supporting work on VBI-2905. The candidate is being developed using VBI's proprietary eVLP platform, together with the National Research Council of Canada.

“In parallel to the global roll out of vaccines,” CEPI chief executive Richard Hatchett said, “we must now redouble our R&D efforts so we have the tools we need to tackle emerging variants of the virus.”

He added: “I am delighted that CEPI will support the development of VBI’s promising vaccine candidates against variants of concern, which crucially can be made globally accessible through COVAX if proven to be safe and effective.”