At the end of last year, we all hoped that the worst of Covid-19 was behind us and that things would soon be back to normal.
Unfortunately, Omicron had other plans in store. The variant has spread faster than any other virus in history, and although some studies suggest Omicron cases are less severe – especially for those who are vaccinated – nations around the world are experiencing the highest peaks in the world. entire pandemic and many health systems are once again at risk of collapse.
Despite these difficulties, we continue to be optimistic and believe that the pandemic can end by 2022. The key to defeating Covid-19 and averting a future pandemic lies in global collaboration aimed at an innovation that everyone can benefit from.
Through the extraordinary work of researchers, industry and public authorities around the world, science has made progress in record time, developing vaccines against Covid-19 and cures that have saved millions of lives and changed the trajectory of this disease – allowing us to see the light at the end of a very long tunnel.
Building on these advances we now need to build better solutions, such as vaccines that are effective against all variants and that more people can enjoy, faster.
This is why the Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust are increasing by 50% the support given to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (Cepi) – a cornerstone of global pandemic prevention – bringing it to 264 million euros, while the European Commission, on the other hand his, continues to favor an extended role for Cepi. We also encourage the leaders of the globe to donate generously to Cepi, so that it can reach its goal of 3.5 billion dollars and carry out its vital work.
Initially born from a coalition of governments and organizations in 2017 after the Ebola crisis in West Africa, Cepi sets out to ensure that future epidemics can be addressed more quickly, accelerating the development of vaccines and helping to distribute them more quickly and equally among the countries that need them.
Even before the arrival of Covid-19, Cepi supported research on mRNA vaccines: the scientific breakthrough that helped accelerate the world‘s response to the crisis. Starting from January 2020, Cepi had begun to forge alliances with vaccine developers, in order to cope with Covid-19, to guarantee crucial segments of the supply chain (such as glass vials) and to work alongside global organizations in order to ensure that low-income countries were not excluded.
The Coalition has also funded fourteen studies on as many possible vaccines against Covid-19 (three of which have been included by the World Health Organization in the List for emergency use, while a further six continue to be developed, thanks funds from Cepi) and many trials on vaccine matching, aimed at confirming that different vaccines and boosters are safe and effective when combined with each other. Recently, while engaged in the Novavax production facility in the Czech Republic, Cepi secured one billion doses of Novavax to be distributed through the Covax program.
As a global institution dedicated to protecting the internal world, Cepi must play a great complementary role to match the initiatives and efforts being undertaken at the national and regional level. Among these is the recently established Authority for the preparation and response to health emergencies of the European Union (Hera).
Like Cepi, Hera also aims to encourage international collaboration in order to expand the global production of vaccines, solve problems in the supply chain, support clinical trials and the search for new solutions and help low and middle-income countries to increase its production and regulatory capacity.
Cepi and Hera will collaborate closely on a variety of fronts to ward off future pandemics, because just as no one knows where the next variant of the virus (which, if not contained, will be destined to spread) will appear, no one is able to predict in which part of the world the turning point will be reached that will upset the rules of the game. This is why one of Hera’s central tasks is to place the global level of preparation at the center of the international agenda. For example, the European Union and the United States – both technological leaders in the field of advanced vaccination platforms – are collaborating to defeat the pandemic and facilitate global vaccination. Cooperating with partners such as Cepi is equally important to achieve these goals.
Since the appearance of Omicron, Cepi has further expanded its scientific alliances to develop a potential “variant-proof” vaccine, capable of protecting against all current and future Covid-19 mutations, and is working with partners to fight six more. potentially epidemic diseases and create an assortment of vaccines with which to counter the evils few have heard of – so as to have them if needed.
Cepi aims to accelerate the development of vaccines, and this goal – which is shared by the G7 nations – will represent an essential element in our response capacity in the future and will allow us to save millions of lives and trillions of dollars. At the same time, similar efforts will lead to the development of vaccines for other plagues that have plagued us for some time, such as HIV and tuberculosis. At the heart of all Cepi’s activities is the principle that innovations should benefit everyone.
After two years of Covid-19 we are all understandably exhausted. Our countries and communities have paid a heavy price for the virus. There are, however, many reasons for hope. New, innovative actors such as Cepi and Hera have a plan to defeat Covid-19 and better prepare us for the future. By creating countermeasures to oppose all potentially dangerous pathogens, Cepi can help stem a limited outbreak before it turns into a new pandemic. By collaborating with Hera, and beyond, Cepi realizes a science that offers global benefits, builds innovative alliances between established and emerging vaccine developers and strengthens local institutions and supply chains, so that more nations can quickly immunize their citizens. and threats such as that represented by Covid-19 can be promptly annihilated.
To help make this happen, we need to give these innovative, public and multilateral health institutions the support they need to protect us all. Investing in innovation today is the best way to increase our ability to respond to health crises, wherever they arise, and to ensure that a pandemic like that of Covid-19 never occurs again. We are happy to help, and we invite others to join us.
Bill Gates is the co-founder of Microsoft and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Stella Kyriakides is the European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety
Translation by Marzia Porta
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