Deadline: 30 June 2020
CEPI has opened an additional funding opportunity for the rapid development of vaccines against COVID-19.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is a public health crisis causing unprecedented disruption to human activity. As national and regional governments assess containment measures, it is thought that only widely available safe and effective vaccines in conjunction with other public health measures will allow a return to normal life and help prevent further sickness and deaths.
CEPI is striving to accelerate vaccine development and to ensure that associated manufacturing capabilities and capacities will meet global demand as quickly as possible. This Call for Proposals will support the rapid development of vaccines striving for licensure/emergency authorization in 12-18 months or less and, to ensure the availability of sufficient doses for wide-spread global deployment as soon as possible in 2021.
Objectives and the Scope of this Call
The objective of this Call for Proposals is to support the rapid development of vaccines with a goal of achieving licensure/emergency authorization in 12-18 months or less and to ensure the availability of sufficient doses for wide-spread global deployment as soon as possible in 2021.
CEPI’s core goal in releasing this call for proposals is to accelerate the development of safe and effective vaccines by organizations who can rapidly deliver at scale and to ensure that the supply of vaccine doses is made available to meet the public health need on a worldwide basis during the pandemic.
Eligibility Criteria
- The funding opportunity through this rolling Call is open worldwide, to all types of organization: forprofit companies; non-profit organisations; international institutions and foundations; joint R&D ventures; government research organisations; and other vaccine developers.
- Applicants must be independent legal entities, or consortia comprised of legal entities. The main applicant, or for a consortium at least one of the members, must have experience in human vaccine development and have a track record of bringing vaccine candidates through development, ideally including licensure and manufacturing.
- The applicant should either be a manufacturer or have a manufacturer with a track record of vaccine production identified within the consortium.
- They encourage all Multi-National Companies (MNCs), companies in the Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturers Network (DCVMN), and other vaccine / biologic developers with the capacity or potential to manufacture at scale to apply.
To be eligible to submit a proposal the applicant should meet the following requirements:
- Have rights to a vaccine technology that has already been proven, or soon will be:
- Licensed product based on the same technology or
- Relevant clinical trial data based on the same technology or
- If funded, preliminary clinical data from a COVID-19 vaccine candidate by the 4Q’2020.
- Well characterized vaccine delivery system
- Feasibility of large-scale manufacturing.
- Apply for one lead COVID-19 vaccine candidate
- Propose a full development plan, or one or more of the following component(s) as part of a development plan depending on the application scope:
- Plans and costs to conduct clinical trials. From the application it should be clear how these trials contribute to the overall Clinical Development Plan (CDP) that constitutes pivotal trials for licensure and / or supports the expansion of the desired product label for multiple geographical regions, for example.
- Parallel plans and costs to generate GMP grade materials and comparability for clinical studies
- Scale-up and/or scale-out plans, including costs and timelines to generate final manufacturing scale material presented in suitable containers
- Plans that support the ideal storage requirements for final product.
- Plans to specifically accelerate the pathway to licensure and market readiness
- Be an organization that has its own large-scale manufacturing capabilities and a mature supply chain, or is able to expand upon its existing infrastructure/footprint, or has a proven track record of transferring its vaccine technology to a global network of manufacturer(s).
- Be in a position for market readiness within the next 12-18 months or less.
For more information, visit https://cepi.net/get_involved/cfps/