Global health security requires partnership (and IP)

BIO’s been busy—here’s what Rachel King told global health officials about partnerships and IP, and details on BIO’s new clinical trial diversity resources. (544 words, 2 minutes, 43 seconds)

For global health security, we need public-private partnership

We developed safe and effective COVID vaccines so quickly “because of partnerships,” said BIO CEO Rachel King at a high-level global health symposium in Washington, D.C. this week. 

The event: The Council on Foreign Relations and the Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy at the U.S. Department of State hosted a November 13 symposium, Global Health Security and Diplomacy in the Twenty-First Century. Speakers included WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Dr. Anthony Fauci. 

Global health security requires local health security, agreed several speakers, describing how partnerships with regional health authorities and community organizations have driven progress on diseases from polio and measles to COVID-19.

Lessons from COVID-19: King said the pandemic highlighted the need to…

1. Enhance investment in platform technologies “both from governments and the private sector,” because “we don’t know where the solutions are going to come from.”
2. Strengthen regulatory regimes and ensure harmonization, including around supply chains and regional manufacturing.
3. Ensure “unfettered access to a pathogen so that we can partner together with academic, regional, and industry collaborators to ensure that we get as quickly as possible to the vaccines and therapeutics needed.” 

This “requires a strong IP regime, so that we can ensure that the intellectual property is present in order to incentivize the investment that’s going to be required,” she concluded.

Read more on Bio.News.

Watch: King described how partnerships helped companies achieve so much so quickly during the pandemic—and the industry’s concerns about IP.

BIO unveils new clinical trial diversity resources

BIO launched a new Clinical Trials: The Power of Participation (CTPoP) website and a new white paper, “Improving Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Clinical Trials.”

ICYMI: The BIOEquality Agenda “aims to counteract the systemic inequality, injustice, and unfair treatment of underserved communities” with a three-pronged approach focused on health equity, education, and expanding opportunities for women and underrepresented populations.

New resources:CTPoP “is designed to answer your questions about clinical trials,” including “everything from how clinical trials work to where to join.” New resources include comprehensive directories in collaboration with TrueTrials and BlackDoctors.Org.

New insights: A product of BIO’s January 2023 clinical trial diversity roundtable, the white paper is “a call to action to take forward-leaning strides toward embracing insights gained from the roundtable, thereby advancing diversity in clinical trials.”

Why it matters: “When clinical trials are diversified, everyone’s health improves,” says BIO Chair Dr. Ted W. Love. “The culmination of the white paper and the guidance that will be available on the new CTPoP website will give patients the tools they need to get access to the clinical trials that might be the very thing they need to save their life.”

Read more on Bio.News.

President Biden’s Wednesday: Meeting with China’s President Xi in San Francisco, where they’re expected to announce an agreement that China will crack down on fentanyl manufacturing and exports.

What’s Happening on Capitol Hill: The House voted 336-95 to pass the stopgap funding bill, with 127 Republicans joining 209 Democrats voting in favor. The bill is expected to pass the Senate before Friday’s shutdown deadline, reports NBC News. Meanwhile, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will hold a hearing on industrial decarbonization, and we’re watching the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee markup of several bills, including bills to improve PBM transparency.