Abbott announced the formation of the Abbott Pandemic Defense Coalition, a global scientific and public health partnership for early detection of, 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, analyse potential risk level, 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. The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated a clear need for advanced surveillance and viral sequencing – and the critically important role of testing. Understanding what pathogenic threats are emerging will help us test, diagnose and hopefully help prevent the next pandemic,” said Gavin Cloherty, Head of Infectious Disease Research at Abbott.

Abbott is helping to monitor for new variants or mutations to the virus that causes COVID-19. The company is collecting virus samples from around the world and looking for any changes (mutations) to the virus’s genetic sequencing. The coalition provides the network to collaborate with other leading institutions on this effort.

“The new Abbott Pandemic Defense Coalition consists of global collaborators specialising 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,” informed the company through a statement.

Abbott’s network of partners includes organisations in strategic geographic locations:

• Colombia/Wisconsin One-Health Consortium at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Medellin, Colombia

• Faculty of Medicine, Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand

• Institut de Recherche en Santé, de Surveillance Epidémiologique et de Formations (IRESSEF), Dakar, Senegal

• KRISP, Genomic Centre of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa

• Rush University System for Health, Chicago, US

• The University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Jamaica

• Universidade de Sa?o Paulo, Sa?o Paulo, Brazil

• YRG Care, Chennai, India

Abbott is in talks with additional non-governmental organisations, governments and research centres of excellence regarding participation and collaboration.

Abbott’s Global Viral Surveillance Program, created more than 25 years ago, will now be a part of the Abbott Pandemic Defense Coalition.