With the Delta variant driving over 100,000 new infections per day across the United States, the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over. While COVID continues to rage, infectious disease experts are not only battling the ongoing pandemic but are on the lookout for the next virulent threat.
A bold new public-private partnership to prevent future viral outbreaks from becoming pandemics has moved one step closer to realization, as the Greater Washington cross-sector nonprofit, Connected DMV, has announced the formal launch of a Global Pandemic Prevention and Biodefense Center (GPPBC). The Center will serve as a vehicle to foster greater collaboration among pandemic prevention stakeholders to deliver on strategic projects needed to advance pandemic preparedness and avoidance. The signature initiative of the Center accelerates the development of human monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) to treat the world’s top 100 pathogens across 25 pathogen families most likely to result in disease outbreaks.