Plans to speed up vaccine development to prevent future pandemics and save lives will be boosted by a UK-hosted summit to raise investment from the international community.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and Health Secretary Matt Hancock have announced that the UK will host the replenishment summit in 2022 to support the work of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).

This event will be the crucial moment for the world— including sovereign governments, philanthropic foundations, and the private sector—to take action to support CEPI’s $3.5 billion plan. The replenishment funding will support CEPI’s vaccine research and development activities in 2022–26.

CEPI’s 5-year strategy, published last month, aims to reduce or even eliminate the future risk of pandemics and epidemics, potentially averting millions of deaths and trillions of dollars in economic damage. CEPI’s ambitions include cutting vaccine development timelines down to 100 days - about a third of the time that it took the world to develop a COVID-19 vaccine.

This is supported by the UK Government’s new Pandemic Preparedness Partnership (PPP) to save lives from future diseases and prevent another pandemic. The PPP was formed in April and will advise the UK G7 Presidency on how to meet the Prime Minister’s ambition to slash the time to develop and deploy high-quality vaccines, backed by additional funding to support CEPI’s work on global vaccine development and manufacturing innovations.

The UK is one of the largest donors to the COVAX AMC, providing £548 million for the scheme. COVAX has so far shipped over 49 million COVID-19 vaccines to 120 countries and territories. CEPI played a vital role in the formation of COVAX and co-leads the initiative alongside the World Health Organization, Gavi, and Unicef.

Earlier this year, the UK also secured a UN Security Council resolution, sponsored by 112 countries, for ceasefires in conflict zones to allow vaccine deliveries to some of the world’s most vulnerable people. To help with their mission to end future pandemics, the Government has already provided £276m to CEPI since 2018.