On June 1st and 2nd, 2023, a team of six experts from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) visited the Center for Pandemic Vaccines and Therapeutics (ZEPAI) at the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut in Langen, Hesse. CEPI is a global partnership working with public, private, philanthropic, and civil society organisations to accelerate the development of vaccines against emerging infectious diseases with epidemic and pandemic potential. The coalition was launched as an international initiative in 2017. In addition to an intensive exchange of knowledge with ZEPAI management and the production team, possibilities for further future cooperation were discussed in a workshop.
A six-member team of experts from CEPI visited ZEPAI at the beginning of June to exchange expertise.
Source: A. Appel/Paul-Ehrlich-Institut
The focus of the visit was on a technical discussion regarding global pandemic preparedness and global vaccine production. The team of experts from CEPI presented its international mission and explained how it could succeed in developing, testing and producing an effective vaccine against an epidemic or pandemic threat in 100 days. The importance of developing effective and safe vaccines as quickly as possible in the event of a pandemic has been clearly demonstrated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
With ZEPAI, Germany is also equipping itself for future pandemics and is focused on rapid vaccine supply in the event of a pandemic. This was exemplified by the ZEPAI team in a presentation on how the pandemic preparedness contracts concluded in May 2022 ensure a rapid and sufficient pandemic vaccine supply for the German population. These contracts provide the Federal Republic of Germany with access to significant vaccine production capacities at the contracted companies in case of acute need.
In a workshop on the second day of the visit, the experts discussed how ZEPAI and CEPI can optimally cooperate to ensure global pandemic preparedness through vaccine development and production. Although ZEPAI is primarily focused on pandemic preparedness in Germany, a pandemic can of course only be fought globally. Local epidemics left uncontrolled can rapidly lead to a global health emergency. This is why European demand was taken into account in the framework of the pandemic preparedness agreements when determining vaccine production capacities. CEPI and ZEPAI's tasks and approaches for optimal preparation for a pandemic are therefore very similar.
“Pandemic preparedness requires long-term planning and cooperation.
ZEPAI and
CEPI are in professional exchange to evaluate the sustainability and responsiveness of ongoing activities and to identify synergies and potential for innovation. We stand at the end of this pandemic and the beginning of a possible future pandemic. Let's take the opportunity to prepare ourselves in order to be able to react even better and faster in the event of a next pandemic,”
said Professor Bekeredjian-Ding, Acting Director of ZEPAI.
In order to be optimally prepared for future pandemics in Germany, the Federal Ministry of Health established ZEPAI at the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut on 1 October, 2021. Since then, ZEPAI has been planning for future pandemic needs and is an important part of the management of future pandemics through public health measures in Germany.
Updated: 09.06.2023
