Accelerating the Pace of Innovation for the Greater Good

The COVID-19 pandemic has created the need for an accelerated drug development paradigm to bring vaccines to the masses. Several public-private partnerships, including Operation Warp Speed (OWS), helped fund an accelerated research & development (R&D) framework in which low-risk vaccines, likely to be successful, were supported via federal spending. This investment bore fruit less than a year later, with the approval of the first COVID-19 vaccines by Pfizer and OWS-supported Moderna. The collaborative problem solving and disruptive thinking demonstrated in the race to a COVID-19 vaccine has ushered in a new era of openness that has sped up global efforts. This race serves as proof-of-concept for an accelerated R&D framework. Establishing a "National Institute of Cures" could help cement this disruptive drug development process as permanent policy.