Abbott announces coalition to fight future pandemic threats

Bengaluru: Abbott announced the formation of the Abbott Pandemic Defense Coalition, a first-of-its-kind global scientific and public health partnership dedicated to the early detection and rapid response to future pandemic threats. By connecting global centres of excellence in laboratory testing, genetic sequencing and public health research, the program will identify new pathogens, analyze potential risk levels, rapidly develop and deploy new diagnostic testing and assess public health impact in real time.

The coalition is designed to help the global scientific and health community identify new viral threats, take quick action when one is discovered, and help prevent future pandemics. The sequences of the viruses that are found will be published in a public database so that health officials and laboratories can work together to identify if it's a novel strain, or a virus that has previously been detected. This program expands upon the viral surveillance and discovery work that Abbott has performed over the last three decades.

"We cannot fight what we cannot see coming. This program establishes a global network of 'eyes on the ground' that are always looking for threats, which helps the global health community to stay one step ahead of the next viral threat, and allows us to utilize Abbott's expertise and technology to quickly develop tests to address them," said Gavin Cloherty, Ph.D., head of infectious disease research at Abbott.

Abbott is helping look for COVID-19 variants and ensuring COVID-19 tests are effective The company is collecting virus samples from around the world and looking for any changes (mutations) to the virus's genetic sequencing.

As new strains are discovered, Abbott claims to vigorously analyse them so it can ensure its diagnostic tests can detect them. The coalition provides the network to collaborate with other leading institutions on this effort.

The new Abbott Pandemic Defense Coalition consists of global collaborators specializing in virus identification, surveillance, sample collection, testing and data analytics. The process to identify potential new viral threats begins with physicians across the network identifying patients with unknown conditions that they cannot treat or diagnose. Next, patient samples are tested by our partners on a global scale, followed by genetic sequencing and analyses to spot trends and identify peculiarities that may indicate an emerging threat or outbreak. If a potential threat is discovered, Abbott will quickly develop diagnostic testing to assist in containment efforts.

It is in talks with additional non-governmental organizations, governments and research centers of excellence regarding participation and collaboration.

"We already have a robust collaboration with Abbott related to HIV and viral hepatitis among vulnerable Indian populations. As part of these collaborations the Abbott team trained several Indian researchers in cutting-edge molecular epidemiological methods that have not only helped track evolution of these viruses but could also inform design of public health programs," said Dr. Sunil Suhas Solomon, Chairman YRG CARE, India.