PAHO and CEPI to advance regulatory harmonization and response to health emergencies in the Americas – PAHO/WHO

New York, September 23, 2024 – The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the Coalition for the Promotion of Innovations in Epidemic Preparedness (CEPI) signed a first technical cooperation agreement aimed at improving regulatory harmonization and convergence in the Region of the Americas. The agreement was signed within the framework of the 79th United Nations General Assembly in New York.

The main objective of the alliance is to promote the work of the Pan American Network for Pharmaceutical Regulatory Harmonization (PARF Network). Through this agreement, CEPI will support PAHO’s efforts as technical secretariat of the PARF Network to support pandemic preparedness in countries.

“This agreement supports PAHO’s work to strengthen health security in the Americas. Functional regulatory systems are particularly crucial to achieving equitable access to safe, quality-assured medical products during pandemics and other public health emergencies, as well as to promoting regional innovation and production,” said PAHO Director Jarbas Barbosa. “We look forward to strengthening our partnership with CEPI through this agreement, following a cooperation framework signed in 2023 for the benefit of people in the Americas,” he added.

The PARF Network was created in 1999 to help strengthen regulatory functions and systems in the countries of the Americas with the goal of achieving regulatory convergence and harmonization in the Region. Its mission includes addressing existing disparities, developing core competencies to support good regulatory practices and science, and developing, approving, and implementing common proposals for the regulation of health technologies throughout the Region.

“CEPI is pleased to strengthen its partnership with PAHO and the PARF Network to support regulatory harmonization in the Americas and to defend against emerging infectious diseases across the region. This harmonization of regulatory processes is crucial as it fosters a common understanding among regional regulators, maximizes limited regulatory resources, helps establish standards that are tailored to specific regional needs, and can ultimately help accelerate the process of getting safe and effective diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines to those who need them most,” said Dr. Richard Hatchett, Executive Director of CEPI.

The new agreement responds to recommendations made during the recent XI PANDRH Conference, which also marked the network’s 25th anniversary. The Conference called for a new strategic plan to adapt to emerging regional challenges and improve, among other things, regulatory preparedness for health emergencies.

About CEPI

CEPI was launched in 2017 as an innovative partnership between public, private, philanthropic and civil society organizations. Its mission is to accelerate the development of vaccines and other biological countermeasures against epidemic and pandemic disease threats and to enable equitable access to them. CEPI has supported the development of more than 50 vaccine candidates or platform technologies against multiple known high-risk pathogens and is also driving the development of rapid-response platforms for vaccines against a future Disease X. A central element of CEPI’s five-year plan to combat pandemics (2022-2026) is the “100-Day Mission,” which aims to reduce the time needed to develop safe, effective and globally accessible vaccines against new threats to just 100 days.

About PAHO

PAHO is the specialized health agency of the Inter-American System and acts as the Regional Office for the Americas of the World Health Organization (WHO). Founded in 1902, PAHO is the oldest international health organization in the world and works with countries in the region to improve and protect people’s health. The organization supports countries in the fight against communicable and non-communicable diseases and in responding to emergencies and disasters, and provides technical cooperation to strengthen health systems and ensure equitable access to health care.