International Pandemic Preparedness Secretariat

The IPPS is a wholly independent entity that serves to join up relevant states, the private sector, and global health institutions in support of the 100 Days Mission. The Secretariat works with the G7, G20, industry and the WHO as key partners. The Secretariat was recommended by G7 Scientific Advisors, but is not a formal G7 body.

The Secretariat and the Science and Technology Expert Group perform an annual progress review of global efforts related to the 100 Days Mission which feed into annual implementation reports. These reports aim to serve as an analytical baseline to support prioritisation of effort by implementation partners and multilateral groupings. The Secretariat is hosted at the Wellcome Trust, and is financially supported by both Wellcome and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It is a time-limited entity which will have a progress review in 2024, and it is expected to complete its work by 2026.

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Steering Group

231219 photo dr nemer bio cropped image

Dr Mona Nemer

The Secretariat is led by a small Steering Group that will provide oversight and accountability for its work. Steering group members have been selected from the Secretariat’s supporting organisations (the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wellcome Trust), three G7 Presidencies (current, incoming, and the previous year’s presidency), current G20 presidency, the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) and the two co-chairs of the Science and Technology Expert Group. The Chair of the steering group is Dr Mona Nemer, the Chief Science Advisor for the Canadian Government.

Science & Technology Expert Group (STEG)

The Science and Technology Expert Group (STEG) provides technical input to the Secretariat.

Reporting to the Steering Group, it delivers an assurance function for the annual report against the 100DM recommendations and galvanises support from the scientific community on pandemic preparedness through meetings, working groups, and assessments.

It has subgroups focusing on specific issues, including diagnostics, therapeutics, manufacturing, clinical trials and regulatory matters, and R&D coordination.

STEG Members

Membership was drawn from an open global nominations process and includes members from a wide range of regions and sectors.

Co-Chairs

Dr Victor Dzau

President of the National Academy of Medicine, USA

Shingai Machingaidze

Acting Chief Science Officer, Africa CDC

Dr Victor Dzau

President of the National Academy of Medicine, USA

Dr Victor Dzau is a physician scientist renowned for his research in cardiovascular medicine and his leadership in global health.

He serves as the President of the US National Academy of Medicine. He was previously President and CEO of Duke University Health System. He is co-chair of the World Economic Forum Regional Vaccine Manufacturing Collaborative, member of the GPMB, was advisor to the G20 High Level Independent Panel on Sustainable Financing for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, co-chaired the G20 EC scientific panel on global health security, principal of ACT Accelerator and serves as an International member of Hiroshima G7 Global Health Task Force.

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Shingai Machingaidze

Acting Chief Science Officer, Africa CDC

Shingai Machingaidze is an epidemiologist and public health specialist. She has developed and led public health and clinical research programs that build the capacity of Africa-based scientists and institutions in Africa. Her expertise includes strategic engagement, planning and support of large public health programmes; conducting and managing clinical trials and clinical research; managing research grants and finances; as well as managing strategic partnerships and engagements with national, regional and international agencies. She has published in leading scientific journals and is a member of several institutional, regional and global advisory boards including the Advisory Committee for the Clinical Trials Community and Co-Chair of the 100 Days Mission Science Technology Expert Group (STEG). She is currently the Ag. Chief Science Officer for Africa CDC as well as the CPHIA Secretariat Lead.

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Members

Dr Rick Arthur Bright

Former Director of BARDA, USA

Jose Castillo

CTO at Univercells & CEO at Quantoom Biosciences

Professor Tan Chorh Chuan

Chief Health Scientist, Ministry of Health, Singapore Executive Director, MOH Office for Healthcare Transformation, Singapore

Dr Ruxandra Draghia-Akli

Global Head at Johnson & Johnson Global Public Health R&D, USA

Dr Ranna Eardley Patel

Chief of Staff (acting), CEPI Manufacturing & Supply Chain division, UK

Professor George Gao

Dean of the Savaid Medical School of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Professor Ken Ishii

Director of the International Research and Development Center for Mucosal Vaccines, University of Tokyo, Japan

Dr Yenew Kebede

Head, Division of Laboratory Systems & Networks at Africa CDC, Ethiopia

Lalith Kishore

COO of CCAMP-InDx and CEO of Reprocell, India

Professor Teresa Lambe OBE

Professor of Vaccinology and Immunology at the University of Oxford, UK

Professor John-Arne Røttingen

Ambassador for Global Health at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway

Dr Amadou Sall

CEO of Institut Pasteur de Dakar, Senegal

Dr Umesh Shaligram

Executive Director, Serum Institute of India Private Limited, India

Professor Mayumi Shikano

Professor at Tokyo University of Science, Japan

Dr Mariângela Simão

Director-president of the Instituto Todos pela Saúde, Brazil

Dr Renu Swarup

Former Secretary of the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India, India

Dr Jean-Francois Toussaint

Head of Research and Development at Sanofi Vaccines, France

Dr Niteen S Wairagkar

Founder and CEO, Vaccines for All, Consultant for Africa CDC Partnership for Africa Vaccine Manufacturing, Consultant in Vaccine Development at CEPI, India

Dr Rick Arthur Bright

Former Director of BARDA, USA

Dr. Rick Bright is an internationally recognized expert in pandemic preparedness and response.

As CEO of the Pandemic Prevention Institute at The Rockefeller Foundation, he led the development of a data-to-action platform to detect, prevent, and rapidly mitigate pandemic threats. Previously, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response and Director of US-HHS BARDA, where he established public-private partnerships that resulted in FDA approval for over 60 new vaccines, drugs, and diagnostics. His experience includes leadership roles in both the biotechnology industry and non-governmental organizations. He is an Executive Board Member for the NY Academy of Sciences International Science Reserve, is on the board of directors of FIND Dx, the scientific advisory board of Qiagen, a Sr. Fellow at the Foreign Policy Association, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

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Jose Castillo

CTO at Univercells & CEO at Quantoom Biosciences

José Castillo co-founded Univercells in 2013 and still serves as the company’s Chief Technology Officer today.

Under his leadership, Univercells developed highly efficient production processes that aim to make biologics available and affordable for all. Univercells’ comprehensive manufacturing solutions were initially developed for viral products manufacturing and more than 200 systems are installed today all over the world.

In June 2021, building on the viral production platform, José founded Quantoom Biosciences, a cutting-edge biotech with a mission to remove the barriers to making mRNA-based vaccines and therapeutics, from sequence up to mass production. As the CEO of Quantoom Biosciences, José continues to drive innovation and create solutions that have the potential to revolutionize mRNA production.

José brings a strong track record in innovative process design and successful commercialization. Previous accomplishments include the start-up of Artelis (in 2005), where he designed and developed bioreactors that transformed industrial operations – the iCellis system is now considered standard in the vaccines and gene therapy industry. The technology was industrialized at ATMI LifeSciences and Pall Lifesciences, where José held the position of Cell Culture Technologies Director.

Before Artelis, José was Head of Viral Vaccine Industrialization at GSK Vaccines.

With a background in Chemical Engineering, Jose’s education includes a PhD in Applied Sciences from the Université Libre de Bruxelles, and an entrepreneurship degree from the Solvay Business School.

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Professor Tan Chorh Chuan

Chief Health Scientist, Ministry of Health, Singapore Executive Director, MOH Office for Healthcare Transformation, Singapore

Professor Tan Chorh Chuan was appointed as the inaugural Chief Health Scientist and concurrently, Executive Director of the new Office for Healthcare Transformation in Singapore’s Ministry of Health since 1 January 2018.

Before joining MOHT Professor Tan served as President of the National University of Singapore (NUS) from 2008 to 2017. Prior to that he also held the positions of NUS Provost, then Senior Deputy President between the years of 2004 and 2008. He was former Dean of the NUS Faculty of Medicine and served as the Director of Medical Services, Ministry of Health, from 2000 to 2004, where he was responsible for leading the public health response to the 2003 SARS epidemic. In 2020, he was appointed as a member of the Planning Group (Vaccine and Therapeutics) and the Expert Committee on COVID-19 Vaccination which advise the government on Singapore’s procurement and vaccination strategy respectively.

In 2022, Professor Tan was conferred The Distinguished Service Order by the Singapore government. He was also conferred with the Knight of the French Order of the Legion of Honour for his outstanding contributions in health and science, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, which helped to strengthen ties between France and Singapore.

His other awards include the Public Service Star in 2003 for outstanding contributions to overcoming SARS in Singapore; the Public Administration Gold Medal in 2004 for his work as Director of Medical Services in the Ministry of Health; the Meritorious Service Medal in 2015; and the Public Service Star (COVID-19) in 2022. He was awarded the National Science and Technology Medal in 2008 and is the first Singaporean to be elected as an international member of the US National Academy of Medicine.

A renal physician, Professor Tan obtained his medical training at NUS, and research training at the Institute of Molecular Medicine, Oxford.

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Dr Ruxandra Draghia-Akli

Global Head at Johnson & Johnson Global Public Health R&D, USA

Dr Ruxandra Draghia-Akli, is Global Head, Johnson & Johnson Global Public Health R&D, where her and her team advance global public health into the next era of innovation through discovery, development, and technology capabilities.

Dr. Draghia’s research activities have focused on molecular biology, gene therapy and vaccination. She is recognised as a global leader in the field of nucleic acid delivery for therapeutic and vaccination applications. She is an inventor on more than a hundred patents and patent applications.

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Dr Ranna Eardley Patel

Chief of Staff (acting), CEPI Manufacturing & Supply Chain division, UK

Dr Ranna Eardley-Patel is currently a sustainable manufacturing lead at CEPI creating a global manufacturing ecosystem for pandemic vaccine preparedness, and as part of their outbreak response team.

She is a biochemical engineer with >20 years of international experience in biologics facility, equipment and process design, plus tech transfer, including vaccines (‘flu, polio, Covid-19), mAbs and ATMPs. Ranna was a consultant lead for the AZ Covid-19 vaccine program with responsibility for DSP process finalization, tech transfer and validation at partner manufacturing networks, leading the UK and Dutch facilities to be the first to be authorized. She was then asked to serve the UK Vaccines Taskforce as a technical program lead.

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Professor George Gao

Dean of the Savaid Medical School of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Professor Gao is the former director-general of China CDC (2017-2022) and former vice-president of National Natural Science Foundation of China. He is a member (academician) of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), an international member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS), a foreign member of the U.K. Royal Society (RS), a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.

He is the director of the WHO collaborating center for influenza China and a professor of Institute of Microbiology, CAS. Gao has pioneered and made numerous significant original breakthroughs on the pathogenesis mechanisms and pathogen-host interaction of emerging infectious pathogens. His interests also include global public health and health strategy, and is an advocate of international collaboration in global public health. Gao pioneers the COVID-19 research and control with virus discovery, vaccine and therapeutic monoclonal antibody development etc. Gao is a recipient of several international and national awards, including TWAS Medical Prize, Nikkei Asian Prize (Japan), Shulan Medical Sciences Award, the Gamaleya Medal (Russia), HKU Centennial Distinguished Chinese Scholar and the Qiu Shi Outstanding Scientist, Outstanding Scientific Research Team Awards and TWAS Medal Lectures.

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Professor Ken Ishii

Director of the International Research and Development Center for Mucosal Vaccines, University of Tokyo, Japan

Ken Ishii is Professor and Director of the International Research and Development Center for Mucosal Vaccines at the University of Tokyo. He is on the Scientific Advisory Committee for CEPI.

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Dr Yenew Kebede

Head, Division of Laboratory Systems & Networks at Africa CDC, Ethiopia

Dr Yenew Kebede Tebeje is a medical microbiologist and public health expert with 20 years of clinical, teaching, laboratory science, research, capacity building, and programme design and management experience.

His achievements include building laboratory systems in low-income countries, human resource capacity development, and development of policy frameworks and guidelines that impact laboratory programmes in Africa. Dr Tebeje currently serves as Head of Division of Laboratory Systems at Africa CDC where he leads programmes to strengthen public health laboratory systems and networks in Africa.

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Lalith Kishore

COO of CCAMP-InDx and CEO of Reprocell, India

Lalith Kishore is currently COO CCAMP-InDx Project, working with the support of the Principal Science Advisor’s office, Government of India. A National Diagnostics catapult funded by Bill& Melinda Gates Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation and FIND for Indigenisation of Diagnostics in India (2020-2023).

Experienced Business Leader in Drug Discovery Sciences, Genomic Sciences, Protein Sciences, and Cell Technologies. Six years of experience with a Contract Research Organization (BioServe) in the USA) (1995-2001).

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Professor Teresa Lambe OBE

Professor of Vaccinology and Immunology at the University of Oxford, UK

Professor Teresa Lambe is a Professor of Vaccinology & Immunology and the Calleva Head of Vaccine Immunology at the University of Oxford.

She is leading a research group which improves human health by controlling disease through vaccination – stopping epidemics before they become pandemics. Her team work on emerging and outbreak pathogens including Ebola, CCHF and SARS CoV-2. Prof Lambe is one of the Principal Investigators overseeing the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine programme. In January 2020, Prof. Lambe co-designed the vaccine, led the preclinical studies, and then oversaw the delivery of the immune results needed to support regulatory approval in late 2020. The vaccine has played a pivotal role in the fight against COVID-19. Prof. Lambe was appointed as an honorary OBE for her services to Sciences and Public Health in the 2021 Queen’s Birthday Honours.

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Professor John-Arne Røttingen

Ambassador for Global Health at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway

Professor John-Arne Røttingen is Ambassador for Global Health at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway. He is Adjunct Scientific Director at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and Visiting Fellow of Practice at Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford University.

He was the founding Chief Executive Officer of CEPI – Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and has been the Chief Executive of the Research Council of Norway; Executive Director of Infection Control and Environmental Health at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health; Professor of Health Policy at the Department of Health Management and Health Economics, Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo; and Adjunct Professor at the Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He has been the founding Chief Executive of the Norwegian Knowledge Centre for the Health Services; Oxford Scholar at Wadham College; Fulbright Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School; Chair of the Board of the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research; and Chair of the Consultative Expert Working Group on Research and Development: Financing and Coordination (CEWG), WHO. He is member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and the US National Academy of Medicine. He received his MD and PhD from the University of Oslo, an MSc from Oxford University and an MPA from Harvard University.

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Dr Amadou Sall

CEO of Institut Pasteur de Dakar, Senegal

Dr Amadou A Sall is the CEO of Institut Pasteur de Dakar in Senegal and director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Arboviruses and viral hemorrhagic fever. He has been chairman of the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network and a member of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovation (CEPI) Scientific Advisory Board.

Dr Sall is a virologist with a PhD in Public health. He is an expert in epidemics response and control more specifically for arboviruses and viral hemorrhagic fevers (Ebola, Zika, Yellow fever…) and high consequence pathogens.

Dr Sall is member of several expert committees for WHO (GOARN, TDR, SAGE, STAG-IH…) and OIE. Dr Sall is the co-chair of the COVID-19 laboratory technical working group of Africa Center for Disease Control and member of the Africa Union AFTCOR steering Committee as well as the Senegalese Committee for COVID-19. He is the chairman of the Pasteur Network.

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Dr Umesh Shaligram

Executive Director, Serum Institute of India Private Limited, India

Dr Umesh Shaligram, Executive Director & Board Member of Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd., spearheads the scientific development of vaccines, especially COVID‐19 vaccines, next generation biologics including biosimilars and biobetters. He oversees unique disease burden reduction and disease elimination using detect, treat and prevent strategies.

He led the development and manufacturing of billions of doses of COVISHIELD® and first indigenously manufactured COVID‐19 vaccine, Covovax/Neuvaxovid (first time in the history of India to supply to US). He guided the team to secure USFDA approval for manufacturing plant at SIIPL.

He is fore‐fronting SIIPL’s strategies for (i) TB eradication with novel products based on detection, prevention and treatment (ii) Malaria elimination, (iii) Pertussis elimination,

(iv) HPV eradication, (v) Point of care CART‐cell therapies and new upcoming therapies.

He has experience of various technologies involved in the field of biologics, biosimilars, biobetters and has led several collaborations, tech‐transfers and business relations with

various companies and research organizations. He is also actively involved in regulatory interaction with several regulatory agencies in the world.

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Professor Mayumi Shikano

Professor at Tokyo University of Science, Japan

Professor Shikano worked for PMDA, the Japanese pharmaceutical regulatory agency, for 19 years.

In this capacity, she gained expertise in R&D coordination, CMC, and non-clinical and clinical development of biologics (including vaccines against H1N1 and H5N1 influenza) through reviewing marketing applications and consulting services for pharmaceutical industries and academics. She led the development of the 2010 Japanese guidelines on clinical and non-clinical evaluations of vaccines.

As Associate Director of PMDA, she also supervised the development of guidelines for companion diagnostics, electronic clinical study data, and the utilization of Real World Data, among other projects. She learned the regulatory process in the US and EU by participating in the ICH, a global project to develop harmonized guidelines, and one-year dispatch to CBER/USFDA. She also participated in collaborations between PMDA and regulatory authorities in Asian countries. Since 2018, as a professor at Tokyo University of Science, she has been involved in revising guidelines on vaccine development.

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Dr Mariângela Simão

Director-president of the Instituto Todos pela Saúde, Brazil

Dr Mariângela Batista Galvão Simão was most recently WHO Assistant Director-General for Access to Medicines and other Health Products.

She was previously Director of Community Support, Social Justice and Inclusion at UNAIDS. In addition to her work at UNAIDS, she brings more than 30 years of experience working in the Brazilian public health system and has played an active role in enhancing access and decentralizing health services in the country. Between 2006 and 2010, she served as Director of the National STD/AIDS and Viral Hepatitis Department in the Brazilian Ministry of Health, where she led successful price negotiations with pharmaceutical companies to lower the price of HIV medication. She is currently the director -president of Instituto Todos pela Saúde, a non-profit organization focusing on supporting Brazil’s public health system in pandemic preparedness and response.

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Dr Renu Swarup

Former Secretary of the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India, India

Dr Renu Swarup, is the Former Secretary, Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India. Having served in Department of Biotechnology for over 30 years, she was also the Chairperson of Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), She also held the Additional Charge of Secretary Department of Science &Technology for a short period.

A PhD in Genetics and Plant Breeding, she did her Post Doctoral Research at The John Innes Centre, Norwich UK, Dr. Renu Swarup has been instrumental in the planning and implementation of some major National programmes. As a Science Manager issues related to policy planning and implementation were a part of her assignment. She was actively engaged in the formulation of National Biotechnology Vision and Strategy in 2001, 2007 and 2015and 2021. She was also a member of the Task Force on Women in Science constituted by the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Prime Minister.

As the Secretary of Government of India, Department of Biotechnology, she led a Network of 16 Autonomous Research Institutes, 2 Public Sector Undertaking and a R&D Network of more than 5000 projects across more than 100 research institutes, Universities and Laboratories. In the recent

COVID Pandemic situation she led the COVID Vaccine, Diagnostic and Genome sequencing Mission. The Public Sector BIRAC, for which she was the founding Managing Director and then Chairperson, has supported more than 5000 Startups and over 60 Incubators.

A Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences (NASI) India, A Life Member of Trust for Advancement of Agricultural Sciences (TAAS) and a Member of the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD), she was awarded the “BioSpectrum Person of the

Year Award” in 2012. “National Entrepreneurship Awards 2017”, TiE Women Enabler Award 2018, “Dr. P. Sheel Memorial Award” 2018 by NASI and the TWAS Regional Office Prize on Science Diplomacy in 2018. She has been awarded the Agriculture Research Leadership Award 2019, Smt. Chandaben Mohanbhai Patel VASVIK Award for Women Scientific & Chemical science & Technology 2020-21, Life Time Achievement Award for Biotech Policy maker—2021 by Golden Jubilee Women Biotech Park. She was also recognised as Business world women 2019 & 2020. She is also a recipient of Y B Chavan National Award 2021 for Public service.

She is currently the Vice Chair of the International Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance Solutions (ICARS) Copenhagen ,Denmark and also a Member of the National Start up Advisory Council, Govt of India

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Dr Jean-Francois Toussaint

Head of Research and Development at Sanofi Vaccines, France

Professor Jean-Francois Toussaint is the Global Head of Research and Development at Sanofi Vaccines.

Jean-Francois has extensive experience in the field, having previously worked for 15 years as a vice president and head discovery unit at GlaxoSmithKline, as well as a director and project leader for various vaccine projects earlier in his career. Jean-Francois has an Executive MBA from HEC Paris as well as PhD & Bioengineering degrees from University of Gembloux, Belgium.

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Dr Niteen S Wairagkar

Founder and CEO, Vaccines for All, Consultant for Africa CDC Partnership for Africa Vaccine Manufacturing, Consultant in Vaccine Development at CEPI, India

Dr. Niteen Wairagkar is an infectious disease physician-scientist and a global Health professional, currently in process of establishing his nonprofit organization “Vaccines for All” with a mission to ensure Vaccine as basic human right globally, establish innovative platforms to enhance vaccine access and facilitate the eradication of vaccine-preventable diseases.

Niteen started his career as primary health physician in India, continued to work with global research and philanthropy organizations (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, WHO HQ/SEARO, US-CDC, Indian Council of Medical Research), on global health issues and viral diseases of public health importance. He is credited with accelerating R&D of first-ever maternal RSV vaccine, maternal influenza vaccines, pandemic H1N1 vaccine, Universal influenza vaccines, and Measles aerosol vaccine.

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