CEPI, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, based in Norway, and Biological E, a Hyderabad-based vaccines and pharmaceutical company, have announced a collaboration to advance the development and manufacture of Biological E’s COVID-19 subunit vaccine candidate.

CEPI will initially contribute up to $5 million toward the cost of scaling up the process for manufacturing the vaccine, and will explore providing additional funding to Bio E with the goal of potentially enabling the production of 100 million doses in 2021.

CEPI and Biological E are committed to global equitable access of COVID-19 vaccines and have agreed that vaccine output funded by CEPI’s investment will be made available for procurement and allocation, if proven to be safe and effective, through the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access (COVAX) Facility. The COVAX Facility aims to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for all countries, at all levels of development, that wish to participate.

Dr Richard Hatchett, CEO of CEPI said, “To end the acute phase of the pandemic, and control the virus in the longer term, we will need a range of safe and effective vaccines that can be manufactured at scale to meet global demand for billions of doses, and deployed to a wide range of populations and settings so that nobody is left behind.”

Mahima Datla, Managing Director, Biological E Limited said, “The initial investment from CEPI comes on the heels of investments from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Government of India’s Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), and provides the impetus for accelerated efforts towards a successful and scalable outcome for global access.”