The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), a global partnership launched in 2017 to develop vaccines to stop future epidemics, wants to compress vaccine development timelines to just 100 days, less than half the time it took Pfizer to develop a COVID-19 vaccine.

"That is our moonshot," said CEPI Chief Executive Officer Richard J. Hatchett during the Asian Development Bank's Southeast Asia Development Symposium (SEADS) 2021. Although the Pfizer vaccine was approved for emergency use just 326 days after the release of the coronavirus genetic sequences—making it the fastest jab ever developed—it was not fast enough. By the time the first jabs were administered, 68 million cases and 1.5 million deaths had already been confirmed. "We must do better in the future," said Hatchett in his keynote at SEADS 2021.

SEADS 2021, Innovation through Collaboration: Planning for an Inclusive Post-COVID-19 Recovery, was held on 17–18 March.