CEPI

CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations) is an Oslo-based international partnership founded in 2017 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, with initial backing from the governments of Norway and India, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, and the World Economic Forum. CEPI finances and coordinates vaccine research and development for epidemic and pandemic threats, focusing on pathogens on the WHO R&D Blueprint priority list. Its central goal is the 100 Days Mission: ensuring that once a new pandemic pathogen is identified, a SAFE, efficacious vaccine can be authorised within 100 days. CEPI manages a portfolio of vaccine candidates across multiple platforms and works with manufacturers, regulatory agencies, and procurement bodies globally.

CEPI announced on 22 April 2026 that Moderna had begun the first Phase 3 trial of an mRNA-based H5N1 vaccine candidate, the furthest any H5N1 mRNA candidate has reached in clinical development. The trial is the 100 Days Mission in practice: building immune-system infrastructure before a pandemic H5N1 strain emerges, so that an updated version can be authorised rapidly on an established regulatory and manufacturing pathway. On 21 April 2026 CEPI also expanded a partnership with the Pasteur Network, and on 14 April with PAHO for regulatory and vaccine-safety capacity in the Americas. These partnerships address the distribution and regulatory bottlenecks that slowed COVID-19 vaccine rollout in lower-income countries.