Background

The R&D Blueprint is a global strategy and preparedness plan that allows the rapid activation of R&D activities during epidemics. Its aim is to fast-track the availability of effective tests, vaccines and medicines that can be used to save lives and avert large scale crisis. 

The R&D Blueprint works on the basis of a list of identified priority diseases. These are diseases that pose a public health risk because of their epidemic potential and for which there are no, or insufficient, countermeasures.* 

With WHO as convener, the broad global coalition of experts who have contributed to the Blueprint come from several medical, scientific and regulatory backgrounds. 

For each of these diseases, R&D roadmaps and, where relevant, target product profiles (TPPs) and generic protocols are developed through broad and open consultations with leading experts and other stakeholders. In addition, efforts to strengthen national regulatory and ethics bodies to respond to public health emergencies are being implemented. 

The Plan of action of the Blueprint is broad; some of the areas of work are highlighted below.

*As part of WHO’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak, the R&D Blueprint has been activated to accelerate diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics to combat this novel coronavirus. WHO Member States welcomed the development of the Blueprint at the World Health Assembly in May 2016.