Life science industry leaders and governments at the G7 Health Ministers’ Meeting hosted by the UK government agreed on Friday to work towards a plan to develop and deploy high-quality diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines in just 100 days after a new pandemic threat is identified.
Success would take the great achievement of delivering COVID-19 vaccines in 326 days to the next level and protect people from potential future pandemics.
At the conclusion of the G7 health event on life sciences, they decided to step up collective efforts to save lives from diseases, with a new commitment for partnership to achieve the ambition of better pandemic preparedness.
CEOs and representatives from some of the world’s largest life sciences companies who participated in the event on life sciences, backed the ambition of the 100 Days Mission set out by the pandemic preparedness partnership.
They deliberated on how the public and private sectors can work together to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
All the participants recognised the crucial importance of sustained political and industry leadership in between outbreaks and of the public and private sectors working together to tackle the most complex global health threats, according to a UK government statement.
The pandemic preparedness partnership aims to ensure the world is better protected against future pandemics by putting into place the comprehensive set of actions needed in order to achieve the ambitious target of 100 days.
New therapeutics, vaccines and diagnostics against potential future pathogens should be part-developed before the next pandemic starts, involving sustained innovation and collaboration between large and small companies, academic and medical researchers, regulators and global health bodies.
“The first 100 days in a pandemic are crucial to changing the course of a disease. In those 3 months, diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines are key weapons. Given the extent of the social, economic and health impacts caused by COVID-19, the 100 Days Mission is rightly ambitious and sets a goal for us to which we can all aspire,” said Sir Patrick Vallance, the UKs chief scientific adviser.
The last 18 months has seen exceptional collaborative working between industry, academia, international organisations and governments, which has enabled a host of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics to be developed in record time.
Over 2 billion vaccines have been delivered across the world to tackle a virus that there was very limited knowledge of a little over a year ago. The Oxford/AstraZeneca collaboration alone has seen 500 million vaccine doses span 160 countries.
