The Government has published a new Pandemic Preparedness Strategy. The document builds on learnings gained through the ongoing COVID Inquiry and arrives a week after the Exercise Pegasus Pandemic Preparedness sector event, which BIVDA attended.
The strategy identifies responsible organisations for all aspects of the plan, recognising that a whole-system approach across all parts of government is required for maximum efficacy. It is important to note that while the principles which underpin the strategy apply to the whole UK, the actions are specific to England only.
One of the key learnings from the COVID Inquiry is the need for sustained investment in R&D and a strong private life sciences sector. This is acknowledged in the plan and we are pleased to see several actions which specifically seek to bolster pandemic surveillance and capacity of in vitro diagnostics. The inquiry underlined the importance of funding for adequate pandemic planning and the strategy commits to £1 billion during the current Spending Review period.
The strategy sets out five goals with associated outcomes which the Government aims to achieve by 2030. The most relevant to our industry is the third goal, detailing how to attain enhanced access to countermeasures (diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines).
Broadly, emphasis is placed on collaboration, with taskforces drawing from government, organisations and industry being created for all three countermeasures to ensure readiness, fast scale-up, and minimal disruption.
The strategy promises to enhance UKHSA’s Diagnostics Accelerator in partnership with industry and academia, by continuing to develop and improve availability of diagnostic assays, develop new test kits to inactivate pathogen samples at the point of collection for pathogens that would otherwise be too dangerous to manage at scale, and continue to stress test existing assays against current public health threats.
Further commitments include: expanding R&D for animal diseases, investments in the life sciences sector to increase onshore diagnostics manufacturing capacity, and cross-governmental analysis of resources deemed helpful for the acceleration of diagnostics production and development.
The rapid scale-up of diagnostics is recognised to be critically important to guide treatments and surveillance of disease at population-level. As mentioned, UKHSA will work with industry to develop scalable assays and are developing an end-to-end plan to scale and distribute diagnostics, while also ensuring that NHS laboratories can significantly increase test capacity when required.
To accelerate the roll-out of population-wide testing by several weeks and provide resilience to market pressures, between now and 2030, the government has committed to following the actions:
- Build appropriate stocks of chemicals and equipment needed for testing across a range of pathogens
- Support secure ongoing supply of test components, including collaborating with industry to develop target products and onshoring the manufacture, where practicable and possible. Resilience will be bolstered by increasing UK production of vital diagnostic components where supply or quality concerns emerge.
- Develop capacity and systems for test production and processing to support more rapid roll-out of testing to the whole population, including working with industry to increase test production; rapid scale-up in UKHSA, NHS and surge laboratories; and developing plans to bolster laboratory workforce if required urgently.
- Prepare a prioritisation model for testing in the early stages of a pandemic.
New disease surveillance systems are also set to be expanded or created to tackle emerging threats, backed up by investment from UKHSA. Under the UK Biological Security Strategy, the Government is working to connect government surveillance activities for human, zoonotic and plant diseases through a new National Biosurveillance Network. UKHSA are testing novel ways of detecting pathogens in wastewater. Moreover, the agency will also increase efforts in border, community and international disease surveillance.
There are also commitments to scale-up capacity for genomic sequencing and the creation of metagenomic capability to monitor new disease threats. This includes investment in the latest equipment, AI and skills, while bolstering genomic data sharing locally and internationally to support the former. In order to deliver the metagenomic commitment, UKHSA and the NHS will establish a 3-year funded programme utilising metagenomics through innovative sequencing technologies and aim to share metagenomic data in government to cut the detection of emerging diseases from days to hours.
Lastly, the strategy accepts that infection control and management must be improved in order to mitigate the spread of disease in a pandemic scenario. This includes implementing the current iteration of the National AMR Action Plan. Preservation of screening services is deemed paramount during a pandemic to avoid delayed diagnoses resulting in life-changing consequences. NHS Commissioners will therefore work with DHSC and NHSE to develop plans to maintain these services based on prioritisation and capacity.
