The importance of global collaboration to combat COVID-19 pandemic

The pandemic of COVID-19 has put the need for global collaboration on the forefront. We are living in the age of increased focus on nationalism, while global collaboration is being de-emphasized. The challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic reminds us that the world is highly interdependent. Therefore, increased global cooperation is essential to fight the challenges whether they be terrorism, climate change or the challenge of the unexpected current health catastrophe.

COVID-19 is an international pandemic that needs a consistent global response. However, the degree of initial effort to combat this challenge was incoherent and inconsistent, with each country taking measures to varying degrees further increasing global panic and confusion. Instead of pointing fingers at other countries, working in silos and even claiming superiority of response, governments need to combat this danger by fully cooperating with each other. Exclusivity of treatment and prevention should not be the strategy of any government in fighting the COVID-19 global challenge. Affordable treatment and prevention should be offered globally.

A virtual meeting of all the heads of the states, along the lines of the Big 8 Conference, should take place soon to discuss the need for global cooperation. This will further accelerate cooperation among all levels of government, researchers and academics working to combat this disease. This will also unite the world in the determination to defeat this challenge, which has potential to have a devastating effect on the global economy. The United States, as the world's strongest economy, should take the lead in proposing and organizing the meeting.

The search for vaccines and potential drugs should be done by establishing synergies among all the global companies that are seeking to develop treatment. Perhaps a world central body should be involved in helping coordinate development of prevention and treatment of potential pandemics. Such a body for global drug coordination for rare diseases and epidemics should be a fully empowered and funded body composed of non-political administrators, scientists and researchers.

Affordable drugs to combat drug resistance are difficult to come by, and large research companies that focus on drugs for chronic diseases have larger sales and return on investment. An example of the dangers stemming from commercially focused drug development is a lack of drugs to combat drug-resistant infections. There has been little interest and effort by the pharma companies in this area, while the focus has been to develop drugs for chronic illness, which have a better long-term return on investment. If antibiotic drug resistance increases exponentially, we could have a major crisis globally due to lack of drug development in this area.

Universities and research-based institutions focusing on antibody-based therapies and rare diseases should be offered grants and other incentives for further research and development. This is particularly important to avoid profit-driven research, which is usually the case with the pharma industry. While the results may or may not have any impact on the current crisis, it will be a step in the right direction for future challenges similar to COVID-19.

In the private sector, meaningful tax incentives should be provided so that large established companies are able to provide investments for drug development to smaller biotech companies. The biotech industry should be given more tax incentives to work on rare diseases. Although incentives are given to companies for developing drugs in the orphan drug category, these incentives are not large enough to attract Big Pharma to develop drugs without substantial commercial return on the cost of development.

A separate division reporting directly to the Oval Office should be created to address medical calamities directly, at the highest level of government. Creating such a body would lead to quicker and more direct action. The role of World Health Organization (WHO) should be enhanced, and adequate funding should be made available in conjunction with other developed countries.

The COVID-19 pandemic has clearly demonstrated that the world was not prepared to meet this challenge. This may be an opportunity to learn from these experiences. The need for better global cooperation between governments, the public and private sectors to prevent potential widespread health disasters cannot be overemphasized.

• Vaseem Iftekhar, of Hawthorn Woods, is a retired senior executive in pharmaceutical research and development with specific experience in virology. He is a member of the Daily Herald sounding board advisory body.