The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) has added Charles River Laboratories to the list of firms it works with.
The Oslo, Norway based organization – which is a public private partnership tasked with preparing for a medical response in the event of a future pandemic - announced CRL as the latest member of its centralised laboratory network this month.
As a result, vaccine developers working with CEPI will be able to use CRL’s laboratories for the standardized assessment of their epidemic and pandemic vaccine candidates undergoing non-clinical and clinical testing.
In addition to providing harmonised data readouts, CRL will also develop assays to support vaccine testing and has agreed to share these assays with other laboratory members to standardise evaluation across the network.
Harmonization is key to CEPI’s strategy according to Melanie Saville, the organization’s executive director of Vaccine Research and Development.
“Typically, vaccine candidates are assessed in individual testing laboratories with different tools and measurements, elevating the risk of producing non-uniform data readouts when multiple vaccine candidates are being tested against a virus.
“Our Centralized Laboratory Network, which I am delighted to announce now includes Charles River, aims to minimise inter-laboratory variability through using the same standardised tools and protocols, as though multiple vaccine candidates are being ‘tested under one roof’.”
She added, “Such harmonized operation enables us to more rapidly identify successful vaccine candidates as quickly as possible and reduce the suffering caused by emerging disease outbreaks.”
CEPI’s laboratory network focuses on the assessment of vaccine samples against a priority list of pathogens identified as a public health concern or on the WHO R&D Blueprint, including Lassa, Nipah, MERS, Ebola, Chikungunya, Rift Valley fever, COVID-19 and other Betacoronaviruses.
Like existing members, CRL will also support testing of other viral threats with epidemic or pandemic potential, like Mpox and Marburg.
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