Nature: Vaccine initiative marks bold resolution
Editorial Board

“…For too long, the world has fatalistically acquiesced to a status quo in which, because there is no market for vaccines against pathogens that might never cause a major problem, there is no substantial investment in developing vaccines against them. Clearly, private companies cannot be expected to invest on their own. But it is incumbent on governments to invest, and thus address this market failure, in partnership with pharma. … [The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI)] comes at an exciting time in vaccine research. There’s a move away from a single-vaccine approach for any one disease, to developing vaccine backbones for use against multiple infections. This promises to greatly speed up vaccine development — and perhaps even to allow rapid development of vaccines against previously unknown viruses. At a time when short-termism and shortsightedness are rife, and political rhetoric often prevails over action, CEPI’s founders are offering vision and foresight — it’s an insurance policy that more governments, including the United States, would be well advised to back” (1/25).