Thread by @CEPIvaccines

In 2018, CEPI partnered w/ @Inovio to advance the development of a vaccine against Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (#MERS) coronavirus.

MERS is part of the same family of viruses that causes Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) & #Covid19

bit.ly/3A9Fna9 (1/7) 🧵

MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-1, in particular, pose a significant recurrent pandemic threat.

The fatality rates of these viruses are 10-35%, making them 5-16 times worse than SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19; 2/7)

No vaccine or specific treatment against MERS-CoV are currently available.

However, several MERS specific vaccines and treatments are in development, including 4 vaccine candidates funded by CEPI.
bit.ly/3jl7wUQ (3/7)

Today, one of our MERS vaccine development partners—@Inovio—has started the first ever phase 2 trial of a MERS vaccine candidate, representing an important step towards combatting the epidemic threat posed by this deadly coronavirus prn.to/3rUHITe (4/7)

Commenting on today’s announcement, CEPI’s CEO, @DrRHatchett said:

"I’m delighted to see the progress made by Inovio in its MERS vaccine program. As we’ve seen with COVID-19, coronaviruses pose a significant threat to global health security..." (5/7)

"...Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, CEPI had identified the MERS coronaviruses, in particular, as an epidemic threat and partnered with Inovio in 2018 to advance their promising MERS coronavirus vaccine candidate..." (6/7)

"...This phase 2 trial is the first of its kind to assess a vaccine candidate against MERS and represents an important step towards combatting the epidemic threat posed by this deadly coronavirus.” (7/7)