Lassa Fever Research and Development (R&D) Roadmap

Overview

R&D roadmaps are key documents to better understand current and future health threats and identify effective health technologies to save lives.

With the WHO overall coordination and oversight, together with a taskforce of internationally recognized subject-matter experts (SMEs), including scientists from the most affected countries, with specific expertise in arenaviruses and in one or more R&D areas, and with support from the Wellcome Trust, the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota has been tasked with facilitating the collaborative development of an “Lassa fever R&D Roadmap.”

The roadmap prioritizes the development of countermeasures (diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines) that are most needed by Lassa fever-affected countries and is the result of extensive consultations with the Lassa R&D roadmap taskforce, leading national and international experts and other key stakeholders.

Roadmap purpose: to provide a 10-year framework for identifying the vision, underpinning strategic goals and prioritizing areas and activities (from basic research towards advanced development, licensure, manufacture, acceptance and deployment, and assessment) for accelerating the collaborative development of medical countermeasures (MCMs)—diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines against Lassa fever.