Spurred by the West Africa Ebola epidemic, and “at the request of its 194 Member States”, in May 2015, “the World Health Organization (WHO) convened a broad coalition of experts to develop an R&D Blueprint for Action to Prevent Epidemics”. A year later, at the May 24, 2016 World Health Assembly (WHA), Members States welcomed the development of the R&D Blueprint” or Health Emergencies Program.
All because infectious disease outbreaks are “inevitable” due to more “frequent travel, globalized trade and greater interconnectedness between countries.” [2]
The R&D Blueprint is a global strategy and preparedness plan that allows the rapid activation of research and development activities during epidemics. Its aim is to fast-track the availability of effective tests, vaccines and medicines that can be used to save lives and avert large scale crises.
The R&D Blueprint uses a list of identified priority diseases and an unknown “Disease X”. For each disease an R&D roadmap is created, followed by target product profiles. This is then used to guide the response to outbreaks in both urgent action and in developing ways to improve the global response for future epidemics.
On December 10, 2015 the WHO released its first (of what will be an annual) “list of top emerging diseases likely to cause major epidemics”. “This priority list forms the backbone of the new WHO Blueprint for R&D”. “The group of experts who developed the list represented a range of disciplines, including virology, microbiology, immunology, public health, clinical medicine, mathematical and computational modelling, product development, and respiratory and severe emerging infections. The conclusions of the experts were reviewed by the Blueprint’s independent Scientific Advisory Group.”
Interestingly “other diseases were designated as ‘serious’, requiring action by WHO to promote R&D; as soon as possible” included “thrombocytopaenia syndrome” – a adverse event seen from 2021 following COVID-19 vaccination! [1]
G20 Declaration on 8 July 2017:
“We support the WHO´s central coordinating role, especially for capacity building and response to health emergencies…Furthermore, we see a need to foster R&D preparedness through globally coordinated models as guided by the WHO R&D Blueprint, such as the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).” [3]
COVID-19 roadmap was prepared following February 11, 2020 meetings – ARCHIVE