Exclusive: Vaccine org CEPI under pressure to share pricing agreements

Activist groups are calling on the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations to take steps to improve transparency and access, including publishing the terms of any pricing agreements that the organization reaches, in an open letter exclusively shared with Devex.

CEPI, which launched in 2017 to develop immunizations against emerging infectious diseases, was a key player in the COVAX partnership that ultimately fell short of delivering equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines. It is now leading a 100 Days Mission — an initiative to develop the capacity to respond to the emergence of any new disease with a vaccine within 100 days.

“CEPI is one of the privileged and important organizations standing in a position to help make key investments that will combat future threats quickly and as equitably as possible,” Peter Maybarduk, who directs Public Citizen’s access to medicines group, told Devex. “We need to have a better public understanding of not only what those public investments are, but the terms under which they are being made.”