Center for Health Security and Center for Immunization Research announce new collaborative agreement between Johns Hopkins University and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations US

April 17, 2018 – An agreement between Johns Hopkins University and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations US (CEPI US) positions the two organizations for a new collaboration and for research and practice opportunities related to the pursuit of new vaccines for unmet infectious disease threats.

The agreement was recently signed and will last five years.

Cooperative work will be led by the Center for Health Security, the Center for Immunization Research, and the Johns Hopkins Vaccine Initiative at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Activities to be considered include potential research collaborations, professional development activities through CEPI US’s partners’ network and Johns Hopkins schools, student internship and externship opportunities at CEPI US, co-hosting of CEPI US conferences and professional meetings on campus, and other opportunities as they arise.

Launched in 2017, CEPI is an alliance among governments, industry, academia, philanthropy, intergovernmental institutions, and civil society whose mission is to finance and coordinate the development of new vaccines to prevent and contain infectious disease epidemics, with a focus on vaccine access in low-income countries. CEPI pledges to ensure that vaccines play the fullest possible part in containing infections with epidemic potential, to prevent them from becoming public health emergencies, and to build a safer world. CEPI US is part of CEPI.

“We are excited to partner with CEPI US and look forward to finding ways our Center might help them meet their mission of developing new vaccines for the world,” said Tom Inglesby, MD, director of the Center for Health Security. “Some of the most important vaccines will have the greatest regulatory, scientific, or market challenges. We’d like to help study and anticipate those problems and help find solutions.”

“We are inspired by CEPI’s mission and its commitment to building a community of scientists, scholars, and practitioners working together to develop new vaccines for humanity’s benefit,” said Ruth Karron, MD, director of the Center for Immunization Research. “Our Center is ready to advise and contribute to the evaluation of new vaccine candidates that emerge, and we believe that Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health students and faculty have much to contribute and much to gain from this partnership.”

Karron and her team of investigators primarily conduct Phase I and II clinical trials of new vaccine candidates in the United States and developing countries. Her center has been responsible for the initial evaluation of many novel vaccines and has achieved international recognition for its work on respiratory virus vaccines, flavivirus vaccines, and enteric bacterial vaccines. Inglesby and his team of researchers work to protect people from epidemics and disasters and build resilient communities through policy evaluation and research studying the organizations, systems, programs, and tools integral to preventing and responding to public health crises.

“We are so pleased to be engaging the talents of Johns Hopkins University and to be collaborating on work that is important to all of us,” said Dawn O’Connell, JD, director of CEPI US. “Partnerships, like the one we are establishing with Johns Hopkins, will be critical to CEPI’s long-term success by allowing us to harness the expertise of some of the world’s foremost experts on vaccine trials and health security. We are looking forward to finding ways to work together on our mission to develop vaccines that the world needs.”

More information about CEPI is available at cepi.net.