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Stung by the lack of vaccines to fight the West African Ebola epidemic, a group of prominent donors announced Wednesday that they had raised almost $500 million for a new partnership to stop epidemics before they spiral out of control. (McNeil, 1/18)

The partnership will be called the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, or CEPI. It grew out of the lessons from the world’s woeful lack of preparedness for the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa, which killed more than 11,000 people and caused at least $2.2 billion in economic losses in the three hardest-hit countries. As a result of that and the current Zika epidemic in the Americas, a global consensus has steadily grown among an array of governments, public health leaders, scientists and vaccine industry executives that a new system is needed to guard against future health threats. (Sun, 1/18)

“Ebola showed how unclear it was who should step up and how and when,” said Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is contributing $100 million for the first five years. Other funders are the Wellcome Trust, with $100 million, as well as the governments of Norway, Japan and Germany. India and the European Commission are also planning donations. (McKay, 1/18)