A vital part of HERA’s mission is to promote the research and development of innovative, safe, and affordable medical countermeasures (MCM) for EU citizens. We strive to ensure that, even outside a health emergency, preparedness remains at the front of the health agenda and our researchers and industry have access to adequate support and resources.
Promoting a common strategic EU research and innovation agenda for pandemic preparedness
The COVID-19 pandemic showed that unilateral research initiatives can lead to a fragmented research landscape, contributing to inefficiencies in the development of highly needed evidence and medical countermeasures. HERA is developing a common strategic and innovation agenda to unite the EU research community around common objectives, to help guide both EU and national funding towards promising research goals.
This work builds on the activities conducted by BE READY, a consortium of 20 organisations and public institutions from 16 different EU countries funded under Horizon Europe, that aims to define a Strategic Research & Innovation Agenda for pandemic preparedness and response. This will lay the foundation for the development of the future EU Pandemic Preparedness Partnership. In providing a coherent framework for long-term pandemic preparedness research, these efforts contribute to the improvement of the EU’s ability to predict and respond to emerging infectious health threats swiftly and efficiently.
Mapping the availability of medical countermeasures
The Advanced Technology for Health INtelligence and Action IT System (ATHINA) is an IT system being developed by HERA for collecting intelligence on threats with high pandemic potential and related medical countermeasures. ATHINA will detect potential health threats, offer early assessments and response options, and monitor and address vulnerabilities in the supply of MCMs to ensure preparedness and effective response to public health emergencies.
ATHINA will have 4 distinct functions:
- Intelligence Gathering: Collecting and analysing intelligence on public health and relevant MCMs from various official and unofficial sources to detect potential cross-border health threats that could trigger alerts.
- Threat assessment: Identification, validation, categorisation, and prioritisation of potential public health or MCM-related threats, evaluating the risk of negative impacts on individuals, communities, and populations.
- Mapping, modelling, and analytics: Analysing the supply chain networks of MCMs, from production to distribution, mapping MCMs to specific health threats, and engaging in foresight activities to anticipate emerging threats and future MCM development.
- Emergency response: Supporting HERA in future crisis management response efforts, such as joint procurement, to effectively address public health emergencies and minimise adverse impacts.
Improving readiness for clinical trials
HERA is cooperating closely with other Commission services and the European Medicines Agency on the creation of a framework for coordinating and funding clinical trials, improving trial readiness for future public health emergencies in the EU. This includes long-term and large-scale EU platforms for multi-centre clinical trials and corresponding data platforms. By keeping clinical trials ever-warm, testing medical countermeasures in case of emergencies can become less cumbersome and development times can be significantly shortened.
Investing in the development of innovative medical countermeasures
In the past two years, HERA has dedicated approximately EUR 300 million from Horizon Europe and EU4Health to the development of the whole range of medical countermeasures for pandemic preparedness, including diagnostics, vaccines, therapeutics and personal protective equipment. Partnerships with key players, such as WHO, CEPI, GARDP and others, maximise the impact of the investment beyond Europe, benefitting all citizens in the world.
In particular, HERA is supporting research and development of new medical countermeasures and the scaling-up of cutting-edge solutions in health and life sciences through HERA Invest, the first European health investment instrument to specialise in this area.
With EUR 100 million dedicated to support innovative SMEs in the late phases of clinical trials, HERA Invest makes it easier and safer for European companies to invest in high-risk market areas, ensuring that financing is channeled towards projects that strengthen EU health security and open strategic autonomy.
