Image: UK Government [CC BY-NC-ND 2.0], via Flickr
UK government pledges industry-accessible R&D network, while pharma groups commit to investments in emerging diseases
The UK government and international pharmaceutical industry groups have committed to help stop future pandemics in their tracks at a summit on global pandemic preparedness in London.
The summit, held on 8 March, focused on reducing the time it takes to produce vaccines against emerging diseases to 100 days—less than a third of the time it took to develop the first effective vaccine against Covid-19.
The 100 days goal has been set by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, a global partnership channelling money towards vaccine R&D against emerging diseases, which last year it estimated would cost $3.5 billion (£2.7bn) over five years to prevent future pandemics.
Government pledge
At the London summit, the UK government said it aims “to deliver a research and development network, accessible to industry, to speed up the development and delivery of novel vaccines”, having pledged £160 million to Cepi in February.
Speaking at the summit, health secretary Sajid Javid (pictured) praised the collaboration between governments, industry and academia that led to the development of Covid-19 vaccines, adding that “we need to make it easier to get clinical trials up, and get them running and delivering results, and we must work more seamlessly across borders to share data and avoid the costly duplications of effort”.
Pharma commitment
A group of five pharmaceutical organisations, representing companies across the world, committed to investing in R&D on diseases with epidemic and pandemic potential, “and to build a portfolio of promising candidate vaccines, treatments and technologies”.
Richard Torbett, chief executive of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, said industry is “determined to ensure we can hit the ground running in the face of future pandemics”.
Cepi also announced on 8 March that it would be awarding up to $42 million (£32m) to DIOSynVax, a spinout from the University of Cambridge, to develop a variant-proof vaccine candidate for Covid-19 and other coronaviruses.
Richard Hatchett, chief executive of Cepi, said that “collaboration across the public and private sectors will be absolutely critical if we are to achieve the 100 days mission”.