CEPIThe race to future-proof coronavirus vaccines
We keep hoping it’s all over. But sadly, the race against the coronavirus is still very much on. Thanks in large part to ever more transmissible super-variants and sub-variants, we’re still not able to beat COVID-19.
So, after setting new speed records in developing safe and effective first generation COVID-19 vaccines, CEPI-backed research teams around the world are now in a new phase of the race. This time, their aim is to develop a next generation of vaccines that can put humanity ahead – not only of SARS-CoV-2 and its viral variants, but also of future potential coronavirus threats. The ultimate prize at the end of this is all-in-one, broadly protective, or “pan” coronavirus vaccines – shots that would pre-empt the evolution of new variants and sub-variants of COVID-19 and be a defence against future pandemic threats posed by novel coronaviruses that have yet to come across the viral frontier.
“It’s highly complex, but also scientifically feasible,” says Dr Melanie Saville, CEPI’s Executive Director of Vaccine Research & Development. “(And) if we’re successful, we could take the threat of coronavirus pandemics off the table for good.”
