Moderna has announced a strategic partnership with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) to accelerate the development of vaccines against future viral disease outbreaks.
The partnership will expand infectious disease targets for mRNA vaccine technology and strengthen pandemic preparedness.
In alignment with the 100 Days Mission, a global initiative to compress vaccine development timelines to 100 days, the partnership’s first project will evaluate the performance of novel artificial intelligence (AI)-generated antigen designs and mRNA technology against viral diseases that pose a potential risk of causing the next pandemic.
CEPI researchers will send cutting-edge computational antigen designs to Moderna, harnessing its mRNA rapid-response platform and will rapidly manufacture vaccine candidates to provide preclinical testing material funded by the coalition.
Moderna’s mRNA rapid-response platform, which has received multiple stringent regulatory authority approvals worldwide, was clinically validated during the COVID-19 pandemic when it developed a highly effective vaccine for the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
As a result, CEPI-funded researchers will be able to test multiple antigen designs which target specific viral families and identify those most promising.
Additionally, the project will generate data on the performance of mRNA vaccine technology against the identified viral families and will assess the suitability and effectiveness of mRNA for different targets of disease.
New vital scientific findings from the project will help inform further vaccine development targets and accelerate global responses to potential future outbreaks.
Stéphane Bancel, chief executive officer of Moderna, said: “We are pleased to announce our strategic partnership with CEPI, harnessing… Moderna’s mRNA platform to accelerate the development of mRNA vaccines against viral disease outbreaks that pose global public health threats.
“We believe this programme can play a key role in helping the next generation of researchers and engineers to advance mRNA science.”
Dr Richard Hatchett, chief executive officer of CEPI, said: “Future outbreaks are inevitable, but another pandemic is not.
“Thanks to the scientific and technological innovations advanced during COVID-19, the world now has the tools and capabilities to prevent the next outbreak from spiralling into a global catastrophe.”
Further announcements in relation to additional vaccine development projects that fall under the strategic partnership will follow in due course.