Accelerating the response to Disease X: Successes and failures with COVID-19
The first part of the talk will cover the work on Disease X undertaken in 2018. Disease X is caused by Pathogen X, an infectious agent that is not currently known to cause human disease, but that could result in a future outbreak with epidemic or pandemic potential. Dr. Ajoy Chakrabarti leads a team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (with support from PricewaterhouseCoopers) that looked at preparations for Disease X. They identified crucial areas for acceleration in medical countermeasure product development and international coordination. The relevance of this work increased significantly in early 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic began.

The second part of the talk will cover the successes and failures that were seen in the pandemic from a product development perspective, with a focus on vaccine development. Dr. Chakrabarti will conclude by outlining how various organizations are trying to address vaccine access, highlighting some novel approaches to vaccine manufacturing.