Pandemic events will occur in increasingly rapid succession! Therefore, better preparation against future life-threatening viruses is essential. Scientifically, Lower Saxony today already has globally proven capabilities to efficiently counter pandemic threats. The outstanding research strength of Lower Saxony is evidenced by various Corona projects funded by the state, federal government and EU. However, the current COVID-19 pandemic has also shown that the competencies available in the state are not yet optimally utilized, especially in the context of translational projects. Especially in the field of drug development, there is a lack of intensive networking of Lower Saxony actors in order to be able to implement innovative concepts in targeted fast-tracking.

With the initiative "Response Against Pandemic Infectious Diseases (RAPID) Lower Saxony", an establishment of this fast-track approach can succeed. The first essential building block of the project is a strong, interdisciplinary network of all regional key players from science, industry, healthcare and the public sector. Such a powerful network, already established before the next pandemic, will make it possible to optimize the translation of the excellent research and development available in Lower Saxony in order to create, among other things, innovations for pandemic prevention/response and drug development in general. Numerous experiences from the Corona pandemic as well as from many years of translation in the life science sector made it clear that there is a clear need for optimization and opportunities for acceleration, especially in administrative and procedural framework conditions. The goal of RAPID Lower Saxony is to improve these accompanying processes and to eliminate organizational bottlenecks. The location of Lower Saxony is thus to be established as a special competence center for multidisciplinary work in pandemic prevention.

Optimization of administrative framework conditions

In order to be better prepared for upcoming pandemic hazard situations, non-scientific framework conditions in particular must be optimized in addition to the already existing scientific excellence. For drug development designed for fast-tracking in the event of a crisis, the following critical bottlenecks, among others, have been The following critical bottlenecks have been identified:

•    long processing times for ethics applications for pre-clinical studies,
•    legal formalities (material transfer agreements, non-disclosure agreements, etc.),
•    complicated IP transfer and lengthy licensing negotiations,
•     slow approval processes,
•    duplication of efforts due to uncoordinated communication between stakeholders,
•    insufficient knowledge transfer,
•    slow release of resources
•    and insufficient integration of existing infrastructure.

The cost of eliminating these organizational bottlenecks would be marginal compared to the cost of the Corona pandemic. The same is true for establishing an interdisciplinary, long-term as well as continuously maintained collaborative structure with flexible and robust frameworks. Based on the concepts and preliminary work of RAPID Lower Saxony in the context of networking and knowledge transfer as well as the recommendations for action to be elaborated together with all stakeholders, impulses for the initiation of measures on the state, federal and EU level should also be set.

If you can contribute scientifically or in the field of related infrastructures in Lower Saxony to the fight against pandemics, please do not hesitate to contact us!

More information about the initiative can be found at startup.nds.de/rapid.