As the Ebola outbreak winds down, concerns over the Zika outbreak fill headlines. A free, public symposium Friday, April 1, at Duke University will focus on partnerships and incentives to ensure future global availability of vaccines and medicines for these and other infectious diseases. While free, registration for “Alliances and Incentives in an Era of Outbreaks” is required at http://bit.ly/1X5RbjP. Convened by the Global Healthcare Innovation Alliances group within the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke, the event will feature thought leaders who work on the development, funding, policy, manufacturing and distribution of vaccines and drugs to prevent and treat infectious disease outbreaks. Participants will discuss lessons learned from the formation of alliances for Ebola vaccine development, as well as tools for building future agreements among different stakeholders. The symposium will conclude with a discussion of next steps. Along with Duke faculty, scheduled speakers are from GSK Biologicals, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Johnson & Johnson Global Public Health, Merck Vaccines and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (A list of speakers is below.) The symposium will take place in McClendon Tower, Level 5, 101 Wannamaker Drive on Duke’s West Campus from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Limited parking will be available in Duke 1 Lot at the corner of Duke University Road and Campus Drive. The event is sponsored by the Trent Center for Bioethics, Science and Society; Bavarian Nordic; and Marshall Gerstein & Borum LLP. Global Healthcare Innovation Alliances is a part of the Innovation and Technology Policy Lab at Duke. Since the 2014 Ebola outbreak, the team has researched how alliances form to combat infectious disease and prevent global health crises. For further information, please contact Julia Barnes-Weise, co-director of the group. Scheduled speakers at the April 1 symposium include: • Rip Ballou, vice president & head, clinical research and translational Science, GSK Biologicals• Dick Wilder, associate general counsel, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation• Michael Kurilla, director, BioDefense Research Affairs, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases• Arti Rai, Elvin R. Latty Professor of Law, Duke Law School, and co-Director Duke Law Center for Innovation Policy• Adrian Thomas, vice president, Johnson & Johnson Global Public Health • Gavin Yamey, professor of the practice, Duke Global Health Institute • David Knoll, director of governmental affairs, Bavarian Nordic• Ross McKinney, director, Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities and the History of Medicine • Swati Gupta, executive director, office of public health and science, Merck Vaccines• Julie Watson, special counsel, Marshall, Gerstein & Borun LLP• David Ridley, Dr. and Mrs. Frank A. Riddick Associate Professor of the Practice, Duke Fuqua Business School• Joseph Larsen, chief of broad spectrum antimicrobials program, Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services• Jerome Reichman, Bunyan S. Womble Professor of Law, Duke University.
