A new report has recommended improving virus knowledge, diversifying vaccine manufacturing and developing national data standards as some of the ways to better prepare for the next pandemic. 

The CSIRO's new report, Strengthening Australia’s Pandemic Preparedness, assessed a range of science and technology areas and was developed through deep system wide engagement, including contributions from more than 140 experts across industry, research and government.

The COVID pandemic has knocked $144 billion off Australia's projected bottom line and has already cost more than 13,000 Australians their lives.

The report credits Australia's travel restrictions and quarantine for keeping COVID-19 infections lower than in other countries, however says enhanced and nationally coordinated investments in science and technology can help the nation prepare better for the next pandemic. 

The report made 20 recommendations in the following areas: 

• Preclinical capabilities for medical countermeasures
• Vaccine manufacturing
• Therapeutic repurposing and novel antivirals
• Point of care diagnostics for case identification
• Genomic analysis of pathogens and their variants
• Data sharing for informing response strategies

The report said there was limited global understanding of most viruses with pandemic potential, meaning it was difficult to respond with medical countermeasures in a short time frame. 

"With finite resources, Australia could benefit from focusing preclinical efforts on viral families posing a high pandemic risk to humans," it reads. 

It recommends also engaging with global networks during preclinical studies, expanding research capabilities in animal and alternative models, and bridging the gaps between research, industry and the health system.

"Consultations suggested that there is political hesitation to expand non-human primate capacity as other countries reduce their use to only targeted applications due to ethical concerns and public pressure," the report reads. 

In terms of vaccination as a defence to pandemics, the report recommends diversifying onshore manufacturing of different vaccine types and expanding contract development and manufacturing facilities to support vaccine trials. 

"As vaccine candidates progress through to Phase II and III clinical trials, fewer are conducted in Australia, and intellectual property (IP) value is lost offshore due to high input costs and a comparatively small population to support trial patient enrolments," the report reads. 

Undertaking early development studies into antivirals and expanding research into therapeutics repurposing were among the recommendations.

The report also recommends establishing a national genomic analysis authority, a national genomic analysis platform and strengthening the workforce in across genomic epidemiology and related fields. 

"Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Australia’s genomic response was one of the best globally, largely enabled by the initial low numbers of cases in Australia," the report reads. 

"As case numbers increased, Australia was unable to maintain this volume of testing as the genomic systems were not able to keep up with the increase in cases."

The final recommendations are to develop national pandemic data standards, improve capabilities to link health data with non-health data and design analytics that can share and analyse data at a national level. 

"The emergence of large-scale viral outbreaks is inevitable and future pandemics will continue to have significant direct and indirect impacts for Australia," the report reads. 

"The current global focus and investments in pandemic preparedness is an opportunity to strengthen Australia’s capabilities to minimise the impacts of future pandemics."

The full report is available on the CSIRO website.