Washington Diplomat: Op-Ed: Public, Private Sectors Must Work Together to Manage Next Pandemic
Kåre R. Aas, Norway’s ambassador to the U.S.

“…History has taught us that there will be future deadly global pandemics. We therefore need to invest in better tools, effective early detection, and a more robust global response system. The key to avoiding massive loss of life is the timely availability of vaccines. … A main challenge is that there is no market for vaccines to fight epidemics. Nothing is driving industry to create vaccines for diseases we cannot anticipate. Therefore, only a public-private partnership could address that market failure. … [The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI)] works with pharmaceutical companies to push promising vaccine candidates through trials. … The United States has a unique depth of scientific and technical expertise. CEPI already collaborates with several U.S.-based companies, for instance to advance the development and manufacture of vaccines against Nipah and MERS. Norway strongly encourages the U.S. government to engage in the coalition. I hope for a strong and coordinated global effort to prevent new pandemics — and I hope it won’t take another global wake-up call to make that happen” (6/29).