The Abbott Pandemic Defense Coalition is a first-of-its-kind healthcare industry-led partnership. It works to identify, track and respond swiftly to known and emerging viral threats and thereby prevent the next pandemic.
The initiative began in 2021 and now unites 20 scientific and public health organisations from five continents with the specific focus of advancing infectious disease research and helping improve public health.
In an interaction with Moneycontrol, Gavin Cloherty, Abbott’s Head of Infectious Disease Research, said that it was realised during the COVID-19 pandemic that global collaboration is more important than ever to enable sharing of relevant information and samples of viral threats promptly.
“The quicker a threat is found and studied, the faster it can be diagnosed and tested to check whether it is a known or an unknown pathogen,” he said.
This can help us ensure that diagnostic tests can effectively detect these viruses, and that vaccines and therapy options are not impacted, he added.
As part of the coalition, partner organisations conduct both viral surveillance and discovery and study a wide range of infectious diseases, from SARS-Cov-2, HIV and Hepatitis to new and neglected diseases.
For instance, during the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic, Abbott’s partner in South Africa quickly alerted it to the threat of Omicron, which helped it analyse the variant and confirm diagnostic tests could detect it.
Work in India
Abbott’s strategic network of partners worldwide include organisations in India, the United States, South Africa, Senegal, Colombia, Thailand and Brazil.
In India, Abbott has partnered with YR Gaitonde Centre for AIDS Research and Education (YRG CARE) as a member of the coalition. YRG CARE is a Chennai-based non-profit organisation focused on HIV/AIDS. It offers prevention and treatment-related services to Indians across the country.
The key focus of this partnership has been to study India’s viral infections, such as HIV and Hepatitis viruses and SARS-CoV-2, and improve the accuracy of diagnostic tests, said Cloherty.
“By studying the patterns of these viruses in India and understanding the transmissions in high-risk groups, along with analysing migration patterns of people locally, we can develop solutions to break the transmission cycles through use of diagnostic testing and other interventions,” he added.
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