WHO chief scientist joins UK-led experts group to ‘save lives from new diseases’

DR SOUMYA SWAMINATHAN, chief scientist at the World Health Organization (WHO), is among a global team of 20 experts, who met on Tuesday (20) as part of worldwide efforts to save lives from future diseases.

They are part of a new UK-led Pandemic Preparedness Partnership (PPP) which is chaired by UK chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, and will report to world leaders at the UK-hosted G7 Summit in Cornwall in June.

“The Covid pandemic has shaken the world but united us in our determination to ensure no disease has such an impact in the future,” said health secretary Matt Hancock, ahead of a two-day virtual conference of the new partnership which began on Tuesday.

“As G7 president, the UK is determined to work with our partners to build back better from coronavirus and strengthen global preparedness for future pandemics. This expert group will drive our efforts to protect people from new diseases and save lives,” he said.

The PPP will advise the UK G7 presidency on how to meet a target of cutting down the time to develop and deploy vaccines for new diseases from 300 to 100 days, backed by additional funding of £16 million to support the work of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) on global vaccine supply.

The additional funding will go towards global vaccine manufacturing capacity, and research and development to rapidly respond to the threat of new strains.

“Covid-19 has shown us it is possible to develop and deploy high-quality vaccines much faster than previously imagined. We have brought together the PPP to see whether this can be accelerated further and applied to the development of medicines and diagnostic tests,” said Vallance.

The 20 members of the PPP also include WHO vaccines envoy Sir Andrew Witty, and Aurelia Nguyen of the COVAX Facility Gavi. They will be joined by scientific advisers from G7 partners.