Accelerated Vaccine, Drug Production

The government’s system for producing medications, vaccines, and diagnostics during a public health emergency is inadequate, a report from the Department of Health & Human Services concludes. To improve the current system, the report recommends strengthening regulatory science at FDA so the agency can assess new discoveries more quickly and provide a clear regulatory pathway for researchers to bring their products to market. The report also suggests that manufacturers develop more flexible processes that can produce multiple drugs or vaccines, not just one particular product. Other recommendations include identifying at an early stage research that may lead to new vaccines and treatments, modernizing vaccine production and vaccine potency testing, and providing incentives for companies to work in areas in which there is little market besides government stockpiles. In conjunction with the HHS report, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science & Technology released its own report focusing on speeding up the production of vaccines for pandemic influenza and other outbreaks.