Norway-based Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and Q² Solutions, a wholly owned subsidiary of IQVIA and a leading clinical trial laboratory services organisation, have announced that Q² Solutions’ facility in Beijing, China, has joined CEPI’s centralised laboratory network.

This network is the largest and only global group launched to harmonise the assessment of COVID-19 vaccines currently undergoing preclinical and clinical trials.

Q² Solutions (Beijing) Co., Ltd. becomes the eleventh laboratory to join the network, and the first in East Asia.

The sample testing facility will follow the other CEPI-supported laboratories, all using the same methodologies and key reagents—substances used to carry out a scientific test—to measure and compare the type of immune responses and magnitude that the COVID-19 vaccines under development generates over time.

This is in contrast to the typical vaccine evaluation process, where the immune response of a vaccine candidate is assessed using different tools and measurements at individual testing sites, allowing for inter-laboratory variability. Following a centralised approach standardises testing of COVID-19 vaccines to ensure uniformity in assessment and allows researchers and regulators to accurately identify the most promising candidates.