Collaboration to Address Emerging Virus / Pandemic Preparedness

ABOUT

Several coronaviruses have emerged as causes of human disease due to zoonotic transmission, including severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS), and the recent SARS-CoV-2. Understanding the risks posed from SARS-CoV-2 is especially pressing given the growing global pandemic. A key challenge for all biopharmaceutical companies during a pandemic is rapidly finding relevant information to help assess the risk of an emerging virus to their processes, products, and business continuity. While each company was working to collect similar data to help inform decision making, there is value in the collaborative collection and analysis of data to perform a “lessons learned” exercise so that industry will be better prepared in the future to respond to a global pandemic. This project will develop a handbook to guide companies and the biotechnology industry in preparing for and responding to a global pandemic.