BARDA extends partnerships with GSK, Sanofi and Seqirus to broaden influenza response

The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) will continue long-standing partnerships with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Sanofi, and Seqirus to build up medical countermeasures to influenza pandemics and other public health emergencies.

For years, these partnerships and other contracts to domestic and licensed flu vaccine manufacturers have helped maintain and grow the nation’s pre-pandemic flu vaccine stockpile. This, BARDA noted, allows for quick, uninterrupted updates of vaccines and adjuvant stockpiles, assuring preparedness and rapid response capabilities during times of crisis. The ongoing partnerships will build on the groundwork laid by previous investments and as envisioned by the National Influenza Vaccine Modernization Strategy for 2020-2030.

This latest strategy directive focuses BARDA and its partners on developing flu vaccines that are highly responsive, flexible, resilient, scalable, and more effective against seasonal and pandemic flu viruses. Given the open-ended nature of such a thing, the contracts with BARDA’s partners are themselves Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts, which give the government immediate access to countermeasures for preparedness purposes and in response to official public health emergencies; production of vaccines against pandemic-capable flu viruses and strains; and production of vaccines and adjuvants to support government efforts to modernize them.

All of these efforts will benefit the National Pre-pandemic Influenza Vaccine Stockpile (NPIVS), which BARDA maintains through its Division of Influenza and Emerging Infectious Diseases (IEID). That division works with interagency partners, while BARDA assists its inventory through domestic public-private partnerships with manufacturers. IEID also performs risk assessments to identify and assess flu threats with pandemic potential.