Biclen Unveils New Pandemic Preparedness Plan.

• Author: Evans, Tyler
• Position: Government Contracting Insights

* In September, the Biden administration released a new plan, "American Pandemic Preparedness: Transforming Our Capabilities," to improve the United States' ability to respond rapidly and effectively to future pandemics and other biological threats. The initiative could be a boon for companies in the biodefense industry.

The document provides a high-level overview of the administration's goals over the next seven to 10 years. The total projected cost of the plan is $65.3 billion, which would be appropriated over time to a centralized "mission control" office within the Department of Health and Human Services.

The proposal for consistent and regular investments in the country's biodefense capabilities through a centralized office could transform and systematize the way the government plans future acquisitions and research investments to support these goals. The investments identified in the plan could also generate significant opportunities for biodefense contractors and researchers seeking to support this mission.

The first goal of the plan is to transform U.S. medical defenses by allocating $41 billion to developing and expanding vaccine, therapeutic and diagnostic capabilities. Objectives include designing, testing and reviewing a safe and effective vaccine within 100 days after the recognition of an emerging threat, and producing sufficient amounts of the vaccine within 130 days for the entire U.S. population and 200 days for the global population. The plan also sets lofty goals of developing therapeutics for all virus families and creating a simple, inexpensive, high-performing diagnostic test that can be readily modified to respond to new pathogens. These objectives represent significant opportunities for contractors to develop or repurpose technologies.

The second goal of the plan concentrates on detecting emerging threats soon after they arise by creating early-warning systems and tracking the spread and evolution of the threat with real-time monitoring. The plan proposes to allocate $5.4 billion to early-detection efforts including: strengthening analytical models and forecasting of outbreaks; establishing routine genomic sequencing of samples from patients with unexplained fever or respiratory symptoms; expanding environmental sequencing; aggregating real-time information about symptoms with other public health information; and establishing a global warning system for pandemic threats.

These objectives would present additional...