Helen attended Biosecurity Security Frontiers and Innovation Forum which examined the acute prospective biosecurity risks facing the UK and how innovations can mitigate these issues.
The event, attended by Health Innovation Minister Zubir Ahmed MP, focused on three challenges: Biodetection and Biosurveillance; AI and Diagnostics, Therapeutics and Vaccines; and PPE.
Given the inevitability of future pandemics, a current unstable global environment, and increased biological threats, it was agreed that sovereign supply chain capability must be strengthened. The UK also needs to be able to detect these threats quickly, therefore incentives in frontier science must be developed collaborative between academia and industry.
It is vital that we build on our strengths in this area and ensure that the UK’s scientific leadership translates our proficiencies into strategic global advantage, particularly in gene and cell therapy.
The COVID-19 pandemic itself highlighted gaps and vulnerabilities in the UK’s health security, exposing the need for innovation to be better embedded into the NHS and pandemic preparedness plans and utilise technologies such as AI.
In a globalised world, national health security is increasingly inseparable from international health security, and it is therefore critical that the UK, our industry and academics work with partners across the world in a holistic way to deliver critical health missions, such as the 100 Days Mission, and lessen risks at source.
