Cambridge, October 30, 2023.
The new partnership will leverage Moderna's mRNA rapid response platform, clinically validated during the COVID-19 pandemic, to accelerate the development of epidemic and pandemic vaccines. The first project will allow rapid preclinical testing of antigen designs for high-risk viral families, in order to advance global preparedness for epidemic outbreaks.
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI) and Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) have entered into a strategic partnership that will leverage Moderna's mRNA platform to accelerate the development of vaccines against threatening viral disease outbreaks. global health. Work undertaken as part of this partnership could expand infectious disease targets for mRNA vaccine technology and bolster pandemic preparedness and public health efforts in line with the 100 Day Mission, a global goal to compress vaccine development timelines to 100 days. mRNA technology has been identified as a critical element of the 100 Day Mission due to its flexibility as a rapid response platform on which new vaccine candidates can be designed and rapidly prepared for clinical trials and subsequent scale-up, potentially within days from the moment a new viral threat is identified. Moderna's leading mRNA platform has enabled the development of a highly effective COVID-19 vaccine, which has subsequently been approved by multiple stringent regulatory authorities around the world. In the words of Dr. Richard Hatchett, Director General of CEPI: " Future outbreaks are inevitable, but another pandemic is not. Thanks to the scientific and technological innovations introduced during COVID-19, the world now has the tools and capabilities necessary to prevent the next outbreak from becoming a global catastrophe. Our The partnership with Moderna will leverage the company's clinically validated mRNA platform and its world-leading team of scientists to help prepare to respond to future epidemic and pandemic threats in as little as 100 days." Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna, has stated: "We are pleased to announce our strategic partnership with CEPI, leveraging the power of Moderna's mRNA platform to accelerate the development of mRNA vaccines against viral disease outbreaks that pose threats to global public health. Our mRNA access program reinforces our dedication to public health by offering researchers the opportunity to use our mRNA technology in the development of vaccines against emerging and neglected infectious diseases. We believe this program will help the next generation of researchers and engineers advance mRNA science." Selection of successful pandemic vaccine designs The partnership will kick off with an initial project to evaluate the performance of new AI-generated antigen designs and mRNA technology against a number of viral families that pose the highest risk of causing the next pandemic. Building on Moderna's current mRNA access program, CEPI-funded vaccine researchers will submit their computational antigen designs from cutting edge to Moderna, which will rapidly manufacture related vaccine candidates using Moderna's mRNA platform technology to provide material for CEPI-funded preclinical testing. The project will allow CEPI-funded researchers to rapidly test multiple targeted antigen designs to a specific viral family and quickly identify which ones, if any, are the most promising. It will also generate data on the performance of mRNA vaccine technology against selected viral families and evaluate the suitability and efficacy of mRNA for different disease targets. This would provide vital scientific insights to inform new vaccine development goals and could give the world a head start in responding to future emerging outbreaks to advance the 100 Day Mission. CEPI and Moderna will discuss other vaccine development projects entering within the scope of this strategic partnership, with further developments to be announced in due course.Equitable Access CEPI and Moderna are committed to enabling equitable access to the results of this strategic partnership. CEPI will retain rights to antigen designs generated with CEPI funding, and CEPI-funded partners commit to submitting data generated by this project for publication in open access journals for the benefit of the scientific community. global.All authorized vaccines developed as a result of this strategic partnership are expected to be available at affordable prices in low- and middle-income countries.
ContactContact name: Lavina TalukdarContact description: Senior Vice President
