WASHINGTON (March 21, 2018) — Georgetown University and CEPI U.S. – the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations U.S. – today announce a new agreement to explore joint cooperative academic and research initiatives.
The agreement marks one of the first formal collaboration between CEPI and an institution of higher learning. The new relationship paves the way for joint research opportunities and allows for exceptional training possibilities for current and future students and scientists.
CEPI was established in 2017 as a global coalition to finance and coordinate the development of new vaccines to prevent and contain infectious disease epidemics and to ensure that the communities that need them the most have access to them. CEPI US is the US arm of CEPI, which is headquartered in Norway.
"CEPI US is pleased to collaborate with Georgetown, an academic leader in global health," said Dawn O'Connell, JD, CEPI US President. "We look forward to working with Georgetown's faculty, staff and students on a wide range of issues critical to CEPI's success."
Georgetown University is the nation's oldest Catholic and Jesuit University. Building upon its Jesuit heritage and commitment to social justice, Georgetown's Global Health Initiative allows experts spanning its many schools and departments in health, science, law, policy, ethics, business, diplomacy and social sciences to collaborate on developing concrete solutions to the health challenges facing families and communities throughout the world.
"It's exciting to collaborate with CEPI U.S. to explore additional ways our faculty can contribute to and advance the important global health mission of reducing the burden of infectious diseases," says Edward B. Healton, MD, MPH, executive vice president for health sciences and co-chair of Georgetown University's global health initiative. "Focusing on vaccines is good for global health security, but it's especially good and important for people."
Georgetown is home to an infectious disease vaccine pioneer – Richard Schlegel, MD – whose work with colleagues ?provided the foundation for the first HPV vaccine. Today's generation of HPV vaccines can prevent more than six cancers including cervical and oral cancers, and have the potential to dramatically reduced the number of deaths from these diseases around the world.
The organizations' close geographical location (CEPI U.S. and Georgetown are located in Washington, DC), allows for faculty research and professional development activities. The two organizations also are committed to identifying internship, fellowship and post-doctoral opportunities for Georgetown undergraduate and graduate students.
The new agreement adds to Georgetown's existing contributions to CEPI. Jesse Goodman, MD, PhD, director of the Center for on Medical Product Access, Safety and Stewardship, is a volunteer member of its regulatory working group. Goodman was involved in the initial formative development of CEPI, previously chaired its regulatory working group and served as a member on its first scientific advisory board.
###
About Georgetown University
Georgetown University is one of the world's leading academic and research institutions, offering a unique educational experience that prepares the next generation of global citizens to lead and make a difference in the world. Established in 1789, Georgetown is the nation's oldest Catholic and Jesuit university. Georgetown today is a major student-centered, international, research university offering respected undergraduate, graduate and professional programs in Washington, D.C., Doha, Qatar, and around the world. For more information about Georgetown University, visit http://georgetown.edu.
About CEPI
CEPI is an innovative partnership between public, private, philanthropic and civil organizations. It was founded in 2017 by the governments of Norway, Germany, India and Japan, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome and the World Economic Forum. To date, CEPI has also received investment from the governments of Australia, Belgium, and Canada. It has reached $630m of its target $1bn funding. The European Commission has announced a contribution in kind of €250M that will support relevant projects through EC mechanisms. Since its launch in January 2017, CEPI has announced two Calls for Proposals. The first was for candidate vaccines against MERS, Nipah and Lassa viruses. The second was for the development of platforms that can be used for rapid vaccine development against unknown pathogens.
Media Contact
Karen Teber
[email protected]
@Gumedcenter
