Health

CEPI

Research summary, last reviewed May 2026. Norwegian foundation (stiftelse), organisation number 918 244 691. Official site.

Independent recognition: Open Philanthropy grantee (biosecurity portfolio) · Founders Pledge biosecurity research coverage · 80,000 Hours names CEPI as a key institutional actor

Headline outcome: Co-led the COVAX programme that shipped nearly 2 billion COVID-19 vaccines to 146 countries

What does CEPI do?

CEPI, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, is a non-profit foundation that funds the development of vaccines and other biological countermeasures against epidemic and pandemic pathogens. It was launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2017, in direct response to the 2014 to 2016 West African Ebola epidemic, which had exposed the absence of any standing mechanism to fund vaccine research between outbreaks.

CEPI does not deliver vaccines to individuals itself. It funds and coordinates the research and manufacturing ecosystem: vaccine candidates against World Health Organization priority pathogens such as Lassa fever, Nipah, MERS, Marburg and “Disease X”, a network of laboratories and preclinical facilities, and five vaccine-manufacturing partners across the Global South. Its flagship agenda is the 100 Days Mission, an effort to compress the time from a new outbreak being declared to first vaccine doses in arms down to around 100 days.

During COVID-19, CEPI co-led the COVAX vaccine pillar alongside Gavi and the WHO, which shipped nearly 2 billion vaccines to 146 countries and is estimated to have averted around 2.7 million deaths in lower-income countries.

Why did EveryDrop choose it?

CEPI passed our four-stage vetting assessment. Its purpose is a clean fit with the advancement of health and the saving of lives, and its equitable-access principles explicitly prioritise lower-income countries, so there is no prejudicial restriction on who ultimately benefits.

Governance hygiene is strong and visibly proactive. CEPI publishes a detailed Board record, operates separate independent committees for audit and for compensation, and in 2024 reinforced its Code of Conduct, published a Counter-Fraud Policy and ran eight internal-audit assignments. CEPI sits in Open Philanthropy’s biosecurity grant portfolio and features in Founders Pledge’s pandemic-preparedness research, and the wider biosecurity community treats it as the leading global funder of vaccine research for priority pathogens.

How effective is it?

A 2024 modelling study by Imperial College London, published in The Lancet Global Health, estimated that if the 100 Days Mission had been achieved during COVID-19, it could have saved as many as 8 million additional lives, with the greatest benefit in the Global South. CEPI’s operational proof point came in September 2024, when a CEPI-supported investigational Marburg vaccine entered a Phase 2 trial in Rwanda within 10 days of the country’s first-ever outbreak being declared. CEPI also supported the first licensed Chikungunya vaccine. By its own reporting, 95% of total expenditure goes to research and manufacturing activity.

What are the open questions?

We publish what we are monitoring as well as what we like. The main gap from our research is that CEPI’s full audited statutory accounts, filed in Norway, were not obtained in this pass, so the audit firm, the audit opinion and the chief executive’s exact compensation remain to be confirmed before a final decision. No public reporting alleging excessive pay was found, and the benchmark range for comparable organisations suggests no concern, but the figure should be read directly.

CEPI has also drawn criticism over the years. In 2018, Medecins Sans Frontieres argued that a revision to CEPI’s equitable-access policy weakened its original “no profit” stance; CEPI has since iterated the policy and continues to invest against an explicit equitable-access outcome. COVAX itself was widely criticised in 2021 for slow delivery to lower-income countries, largely owing to export bans and high-income-country bilateral buying rather than CEPI’s research role. We treat both as reasonable strategic debate to monitor, not as evidence of harm. Vaccine research is also inherently high-risk, and many funded candidates will fail; CEPI’s pooled-portfolio approach is the recognised response to that.

Sources

This summary is derived from EveryDrop's internal vetting dossier, prepared under our four-stage assessment framework using public, verifiable sources. Assessments are re-checked every twelve months. If you spot something we should know, email [email protected].