Norway-based Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and American firm Moderna, Inc. have entered into a strategic partnership that will harness Moderna’s mRNA platform to accelerate the development of vaccines against viral disease outbreaks that threaten global health.

The work undertaken as part of this partnership could expand the infectious disease targets for mRNA vaccine technology and strengthen pandemic preparedness and public health efforts in alignment with the 100 Days Mission, a global goal to compress vaccine development timelines to 100 days.

mRNA technology has been identified as a pivotal enabler of the 100 Days Mission due to its flexibility as a rapid-response platform on which new vaccine candidates can be designed and quickly made ready for clinical testing and subsequent scale-up, potentially within days from the moment a new viral threat is identified.

The partnership will kick off with an initial project to evaluate the performance of novel artificial intelligence (AI)-generated antigen designs and mRNA technology against a range of viral families that carry the greatest risk of causing the next pandemic. Building upon Moderna’s existing mRNA Access programme, CEPI-funded vaccine researchers will send their cutting-edge computational antigen designs to Moderna, who will rapidly manufacture the related vaccine candidates using Moderna’s mRNA platform technology to provide material for preclinical testing funded by CEPI.

CEPI and Moderna will discuss additional vaccine development projects which fall under the remit of this strategic partnership, with further announcements to follow in due course.