As killer virus out­breaks hit un­prece­dent­ed lev­els, non­prof­it hands $37.5M to Themis to tack­le Las­sa/MERS vac­cines

A non­prof­it formed in the af­ter­math of the re­cent Ebo­la out­break is hand­ing an Aus­tri­an biotech $37.5 mil­lion to put two killer dis­eases on its vac­cine to-do list: Las­sa fever and MERS.

It’s the first deal signed since the 2017 launch of the non­prof­it, which calls it­self CEPI (pro­nounced “sep­py”) – short for the Coali­tion for Epi­dem­ic Pre­pared­ness In­no­va­tions. The group’s goal is to build a glob­al vac­cine de­vel­op­ment fund, de­vot­ed to ready­ing pan­dem­ic de­fens­es dur­ing peace­time. It was formed by the gov­ern­ments of Nor­way, Ger­many, In­dia, and Japan, along with the Bill and Melin­da Gates Foun­da­tion, Well­come, and the World Eco­nom­ic Fo­rum.

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