From silo to synergy: working together to accelerate defences against viral outbreaks

In an outbreak, every day counts. Each unnecessary phone call or duplicative process wastes time and costs lives – especially in resource-stretched settings. There is a clear need for collaborative and coordinated research across medical countermeasures to help accelerate the response and reduce the threat of epidemics and pandemics.

At the moment, research for vaccines and therapeutics is often conducted in silos, decelerating momentum and pace of progress. The reasons are primarily historical: ‘This is the way we’ve always done it’. But there are real opportunities for synergies and collaboration.

Today, various large-scale global actors recognise this need for a more collaborative approach to R&D. At the global level, the WHO and its member states passed World Health Assembly resolution 75·8 on strengthening clinical trials and improving research quality and coordination, and are negotiating towards a pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response accord. The WHO is further leading the development of an interim coordination mechanism. At the regional level, stakeholders are also tackling this issue, including Africa CDC, GloPID-R’s regional hubs, EDCTP, and new clinical platform initiatives. At the national level, we anticipate numerous R&D funders will adopt more integrated approaches to research. 

The non-governmental sector must also take action. Operational research organisations should proactively collaborate, docking into global efforts. 

CEPI and ISARIC have launched a collaboration

Our organisations, CEPI, whose primary focus is vaccine development, and ISARIC, whose primary focus is therapeutics development, have begun a trial of such a collaboration. CEPI and ISARIC have aligned objectives. We both aim to prevent illness and deaths from infectious disease outbreaks through research and capacity development. We also both recognise the importance of rapid research response for pandemic preparedness, including in building towards the 100 Days Mission - a goal to squash future pandemic threats within as little as three months. Through a more unified approach, it will be possible to improve the quality of our outputs and contribute to more comprehensive solutions. 

We will begin this collaboration by tackling common challenges. This includes joint interest in Nipah virus and meningoencephalitis; clinical trials and evidence generation; and outbreak response.  More information on what this collaboration could look like can be found here.

Benefits of collaboration

Better aligning activities could accelerate research and thereby save more lives; enhance the value for our partners; reduce the burden on front-line responders; minimise competition and duplication for more effective use of resources; and increase the sustainability of these investments. Our joint work has already resulted in a more streamlined approach, including a recent use case workshop on Nipah medical countermeasures, co-hosted in India, by CEPI, ISARIC, and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR); and, more urgently, in gathering data and engaging with key partners to respond to the current mpox outbreak in DRC. 

This partnership is in its infancy; indeed, we are just scratching the surface of potential areas for future collaboration. We intend to remain agile and committed to reviewing the effectiveness of this partnership in meeting our ambition to streamline innovation and welcome the interest of other partners keen to join us on this journey towards greater operational collaboration, and a healthier, more resilient world.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

CEPI thanks Bola Jones for her work on evidence generation for therapeutics, as supported by the Wellcome Trust [Grant ref: 225767/Z/22/Z] through the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator.