In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, several Western nations are investing heavily in rapidly developing drugs to treat populations when new pandemics emerge.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, several Western nations are investing heavily in technologies to rapidly develop drugs to treat populations when new pandemics emerge.
- Australia
- Invested $1.5 billion in rapid-response drug research
- Cumming Global Centre for Pandemic Therapeutics opened on Aug. 31 with an initial Aus $250 million donation from Canadian businessman and philanthropist Geoffrey Cumming
- Opened the Doherty Institute to grow the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the laboratory, the first group outside China to do so
- Victorian Government has committed Aus $75 million to the center spanning 10 years, with a funding target of Aus $1.5 billion over 20 years
- U.S.—Biden Administration
- Plans to release National Biodefense Strategy, coupled with $88.2 billion for drug response technologies to stave off another pandemic
- Released American Pandemic Preparedness Plan in 2023 budget for $88.2 billion in mandatory funding for biodefense purposes
- Plan focuses on preventing and treating COVID-19, preparing for new variants, preventing economic and school shutdowns and continuing global vaccination efforts
“The bottom line is that we know what it takes to prevent and essentially take outbreaks off the table as a threat to society,” Andrew Hebbeler, Ph.D., White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s principal assistant director for health and life science, said. “[The Biden administration’s plan] is probably the most focused plan to date that aims to do that.”
The National Biodefense Strategy addresses biological threats to humans, animals, environments and crops. It refocuses how the government handles pandemic preparedness by more clearly defining responsibilities, goals and deadlines, according to the Biden administration.
- U.S.—CDC
- Plans to restructure the agency, partly in response to criticism over its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Increased use of preprint scientific publications instead of waiting for peer review and publication in the CDC’s own Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, intended to hasten response time
- U.S.—NGOs
- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation donated $90 million to the Pandemic Antiviral Discovery Initiative.
- U.S. NIH also granted $57 million to nine Antiviral Drug Discovery Centers for Pathogens of Pandemic Concern
- Germany
- Established the National Alliance for Pandemic-Therapeutics (CGCPT) to develop an altogether new drug creation platform that can be “repurposed to find treatments for outbreaks of pathogens with pandemic potential, including influenza, coronaviruses, and even antibiotic-resistant bacteria.”
Although CGCPT officials admit this is “blue sky” research, one possible approach could be a platform to target nucleic acid that would only require the viral genome to get started.
“Far too little has been invested in therapeutics,” Bruce Walker, M.D., immunologist and infectious disease specialist at Harvard Medical School, said. “Most other efforts are focused on the development of vaccines, but vaccines are not always the solution.”
U.S. government efforts will depend largely on Congress agreeing to fund them, and different administrations and parties have different priorities.
“One of the biggest problems is the panic and neglect cycle,” Eric Toner, M.D., senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health, said to Bloomberg. “We have a crisis, everyone throws a lot of money in it, but as soon as the crisis is over, people go back to other problems.”
