The new Zoonoses Anticipation and Preparedness Initiative (ZAPI), part of the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) public-private partnership, aims to enable swift response to major new infectious disease threats in Europe and throughout the world by designing new manufacturing processes (up to large scale) for delivering effective control tools (vaccines, antibodies/antibody-like molecules) against (re-)emerging zoonotic diseases with pandemic potential within a few months after the occurrence of first cases.
ZAPI is a 5 years collaborative partnership between more than 20 European partners, including leading human and veterinary research institutions, non-governmental organizations, regulatory agencies, expert academic groups, and vaccine and biotech manufacturers. With more than 22 million euros in funding, ZAPI is the first true “One Health” project within the scope of IMI and unites experts in animal health and human health.
Jean-Christophe Audonnet, ZAPI’s coordinator and Senior Director of External Innovation and Partnerships, Research and Development at Merial, the animal health division of Sanofi commented: “Our goal is to enable rapid future delivery of medicines against new viral pathogens in order to manage new infectious disease outbreaks, minimize their impact, and help protect the health of humans and animals. Our committed group of partners is already working to define new thinking around the technical and scientific requirements of industrial manufacturing to make this goal a reality.”