A feud has broken out between the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and Doctors Without Borders, which accused the public-private coalition devoted to vaccine development of watering down a policy for equitable access to any treatments.
Despite several pleas by Doctors Without Borders, CEPI declined to reinstate portions of its original access policy. The guidelines were adopted at the time the coalition was created in 2017 in the wake of the Ebola virus, with backing from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and several governments, among others.
Last fall, however, CEPI eliminated specific steps to be taken to ensure access and replaced it with a more general commitment. The policy was formally revised at a December board meeting, although Doctors Without Borders urged the coalition to rethink its position at a board meeting earlier this week in Tokyo.
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