ZAPI - Zoonoses Anticipation and Preparedness Initiative

The Zoonosis Anticipation and Preparedness Initiative (ZAPI) project, part of the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) public-private agreement, aims to respond quickly to the emergence of new infectious diseases (in the EU and worldwide) by developing new processes for the production of medicines against new pathogenic viruses.
ZAPI is a five-year partnership between more than 20 European partners, including research institutions, NGOs, regulatory agencies, academic groups and producers of vaccines and biotechnological medicines. ZAPI is financed by IMI. IMI aims to encourage biopharmaceutical innovation in Europe to promote the development of better and/or safer medicines.
The project is divided into different work packages. Work package 5 (WP5) covers the regulatory fast-track procedure for the approval of new biological medicines. This work package includes the provision of detailed information and advice on regulatory aspects of the development and quality control of the biological medicines that will be developed with the proposed technologies. Sciensano is active within WP5 in providing scientific advice on regulatory aspects of the quality dimension of the processes and medicines to be developed.
Newly emerging infectious diseases still occur in Europe and the rest of the world and represent a great risk to both people and animals in both health and economic terms. The fact that these diseases are caused by zoonotic viruses, requires an integrated approach with contributions from both human and veterinary medicine in order to control and prevent the spread of these zoonotic viruses in both humans and animals. To this end, ZAPI will develop a methodology that, in a relatively short time, will allow for both the rapid characterisation of new pathogenic viruses and the development of new medicines (vaccines, antibodies, etc.) against these zoonotic diseases. In this way ZAPI will contribute to human and animal health.

Sciensano's role in this project includes the provision of detailed information and advice (as part of work package 5) on regulatory aspects of the development and quality control of the biological medicines that will be developed with the proposed technologies.