The Private Sector’s Role in Advancing Global Health Security

Emerging biological risks have the potential to significantly impact business opportunities locally and globally. The private sector can play an important role in strengthening global health security and mitigating biological risks.

The continued spread of H5N1 flu virus is raising significant concerns within the public health community. This growing public health threat also poses considerable risks to supply chains, agricultural production, business operations, and food prices. And this is just one example. Biological risks – whether natural, intentional, or accidental in origin – are capable of grinding private enterprise to a halt.

In the years ahead, there are key opportunities that the private sector can take to prevent, prepare for, and reduce biological threats.

Make Evidence-based Investments in Global Health Security

The world was not prepared for a pandemic when COVID-19 hit—and remains unprepared for another event like COVID, much less something worse. Alongside the loss of millions of lives globally, the COVID-19 pandemic triggered one of the largest global economic crises seen in the past century. There are clear business incentives to invest in global health security and pandemic preparedness, minimizing the risks of future losses of similar – or even greater – magnitude.

The Global Health Security Index (GHS Index) — which provides data across 195 countries on capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to pandemics — can be a powerful tool for the private sector, providing a singular resource to support data-driven decision-making. The GHS Index offers valuable data regarding supply chains, medical countermeasure development, and regulatory processes for clinical trials.

Leveraging GHS Index data can help maximize the impact of investments in biosecurity and pandemic preparedness. For example, the laboratory supply chain indicator in the Index assesses the ability to scale up these systems during emergencies as well as the robustness of national transport systems. If a country demonstrates a vulnerability related to supply chains, for-profit organizations can work with organizations in the region to develop new initiatives to address this gap. Such public-private partnerships can be mutually beneficial, providing economic opportunities while simultaneously enhancing the country’s global health security capacities.

Incentivize Biosecurity Best Practices through Life Science Research Funding

Life science funders hold significant leverage at the beginning of the bioscience and biotechnology research and development lifecycle. The private sector is currently the largest funder of advanced research and development efforts in the United States, and venture capital firms have made substantial investments in bioscience and biotechnology. However, many funders do not conduct rigorous biosecurity and biosafety reviews of research proposals as part of their decision-making processes.

While some industry leaders might view biosecurity and biosafety as a hurdle to scientific innovation, this is not necessarily true. The negative outcomes associated with potential misuse of research outcomes or new technology could cause substantial economic losses for private industry. The private sector has a vested interest in protecting investments against risks of misuse, safeguarding the tools of modern biotechnology while preventing large scale economic losses.

Life science funders can advance global security by strengthening funding-based incentives for scientists and technologists to comply with biosecurity and biosafety best practices, reducing the risk of accidental or intentional misuse of life science research. For example, funders should establish pre-funding biosecurity and biosafety reviews to prevent unduly risky research from going forward, one of the key commitments included in the Bio Funders Compact.

Biological risks are growing as the world becomes increasingly interconnected and as new technologies make it easier, cheaper, and faster to create and engineer pathogens. Through evidence-based investments in capacity building and the establishment of biosecurity best practices for life science research, the private sector can play a critical role in strengthening biosecurity and advancing pandemic preparedness.