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The latest news and blog posts from the World Nano Foundation.

Jack Hare 1/27/22 Jack Hare 1/27/22

Anti-viral drugs can be final solution as WHO warns against lowering our guard to COVID-19

Suggestions that COVID-19 is on the wane have been strongly contradicted by the World Health Organization’s senior pandemics scientist, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove.

And her criticism of virus complacency has fuelled calls for research and development of anti-viral drugs to stop all coronaviruses at source, in addition to ongoing vaccines and testing for COVID-19 variants.

Dr Van Kerkhove, a highly regarded infectious disease epidemiologist and World Health Organization (WHO) Head of the Emerging Diseases and Zoonoses Unit, delivered her wake-up call in a BBC TV interview where she insisted that COVID-19 was still evolving and the world must evolve with it:

“It will not end with this latest wave (Omicron) and it will not be the last variant you will hear us (WHO) speaking about – unfortunately,” she told BBC interviewer Sophie Raworth.

Countries with high immunity and vaccination levels were starting to think the pandemic is over, she added, but despite 10 billion vaccine doses delivered globally, more than three billion people were yet to receive one dose, leaving the world highly susceptible to further COVID mutations - a global problem for which a global solution was needed.

She also challenged assumptions that the COVID Omicron variant was mild: “It is still putting people in hospital…and it will not be the last (variant). There is no guarantee that the next one will be less severe. We must keep the pressure up – we cannot give it a free ride.”

WNF Chairman Paul Stannard said: “We welcome Dr Van Kerkhove’s timely intervention. Too many people think we can sit back with COVID now, forgetting lessons learned the hard way.

“Such as there’s always another variant just around the corner, and testing and vaccines are not the complete answer.

“Even if Omicron seems milder than its predecessors – though this may be due to vaccinations and growing herd immunity – who can say that a more fatal COVID mutation will not follow, or an all-new virus is waiting to strike.

“Many other pathogens have entered humans in last 15 years including SARS, Ebola, Zika virus and Indian Flu variants, so permanent pandemic protection investment is vital to restoring confidence in our way of life and the global markets.

“An even older lesson is Spanish Flu (1918-20): the death toll was relatively contained initially, lulling people already fatigued by WW1 devastation into thinking the worst was over.

“But that virus then mutated into its most deadly strain, killing 50 million people when Earth’s population numbered less than two billion. All of which suggests we must maintain or redouble our efforts against COVID-19 and other potential threats.

“We have already benefitted from greater healthcare investment and research due to the pandemic: experts say the first six months of the emergency delivered sector progress equivalent to the previous 10 years.

“This helped unusually rapid deployment of new and better testing and vaccines that have driven down infection, hospitalization and deaths, but we hope that the WHO view will now foster a new and potentially more effective development against COVID and other threats – anti-viral drugs.

“Instead of attacking the virus like a vaccine, anti-viral drugs aim to stop it functioning in the human body. Merck and Pfizer say they have re-purposed existing drugs to do just that.

“But a better option is gathering momentum using nanomedicine, AI and advanced computational technology to develop all-new drugs more quickly and effectively, potentially delivering breakthroughs against many serious killers, including viruses, cancers and heart disease.

“WNF believes these can disrupt the traditional pharmaceutical industry as Tesla has done in the auto industry, or SpaceX and Blue Origin have done in space.”

California-based Verseon has developed an AI and computational drug development platform and has six drug candidates, including an anti-viral drug to potentially block all coronaviruses and some flu variants, potentially transforming pandemic protection.

This could be on the market within 18 months after securing a final $60 million investment, a small amount compared to the $1 billion pharma industry norm for a single new drug (source: Biospace), and weighed against 5.6 million COVID deaths globally and an estimated $3 trillion in economic output (source: Statista) lost since the start of the pandemic.

Verseon Head of Discovery Biology Anirban Datta said: “Vaccines and the current anti-viral drugs are retrospective solutions that don’t treat newly emergent strains. We need a different strategy to avoid always being one step behind viral mutations.

“So, we switched target from the virus to the human host. If we stop SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) entering our cells which, unlike viruses, don’t mutate then we have a long-term solution.

“Even better, the strategy should work against other coronaviruses and influenza strains that use the same mechanism as SARS-CoV-2 to infect cells – a key point, since it surely won’t be the last pandemic to affect humanity.”

Arnold Kristoff 12/23/21 Arnold Kristoff 12/23/21

Nanomedicine and AI computational drug delivery is key to beating never-ending COVID mutation cycle

As the world reels from the rise of another COVID-19 variant – the omicron strain – attention again rightly focuses on vaccine protection.

But the big question increasingly asked is: “Can this end the pandemic or do we always face being outflanked by the next new variant?”

Pfizer admitted this week that we could still be ‘managing’ COVID variants into 2024 as the virus moves, hopefully, from pandemic to endemic.

This suggests that the world desperately needs robust new anti-viral drugs that stop all coronaviruses at source, using the latest nanotechnology and AI drug discovery applications.

Industry experts admit that the current crop of mRNA vaccines represent a major step-up. Developed in record time, they have been highly effective in preventing symptoms, viral load and the spread of prior COVID-19 variants.

But viral mutations continue to degrade vaccine effectiveness, particularly for respiratory viruses like influenza and COVID-19.

And a large part of global society either can’t access, or worse, refuses vaccination, thereby enabling these viruses to mutate in unprotected hosts and perpetuate the ‘Groundhog Day’ nightmare that humanity keeps re-living.

In contrast, anti-viral drugs should be easier to distribute, more readily taken up, and protection of the majority is less likely to be compromised if certain people choose not to take the drugs.

They work differently: instead of enabling the virus to mutate, they disrupt or block the process. One approach was described as “like putting diesel in a petrol engine,” according to a Daily Telegraph report quoting Stephen Griffin, associate professor in the School of Medicine, University of Leeds.

Established drug giants, Merck and Pfizer, recently announced COVID-19 anti-virals repurposed from prior programs, though questions have been raised about how long these drugs last in the body and their dosage frequency.

Merck’s Molnupiravir – modified from an anti-flu drug - needs eight doses daily and while Pfizer’s Paxlovid only needs four, it must be partnered with an HIV drug to prevent the liver filtering it out before it can act.

There is still more to understand about their efficacy: although Paxlovid’s estimated effectiveness in preventing adverse outcomes such as severe illness or death remains high for now, Molnupiravir’s effectiveness has been revised down to potentially only 30%.

It has also been suggested that they become less effective as the virus continues to mutate. All of which prompts three questions:

Firstly, are these drugs a better answer than vaccines?

Secondly, rather than always playing catch-up with such viruses why not stop them entirely in the first place, through new drug discoveries?

Thirdly, who will come up with such solutions?

Last week, Nano Magazine ran a major international report on new trends in nanomedicine and the use of AI and other technologies in drug discovery.

Various companies were mentioned, including London-based BenevolentAI, which joined a public-private consortium to find treatments for COVID.

BenevolentAI identified Baricitinib as an existing drug to repurpose for treating COVID-19, but according a report in The Lancet, the drug prevented just one additional death in every 20 Baricitinib-treated patients against a placebo batch in a later clinical trial.

Nano Magazine’s report also mentioned California-based Verseon as one of the more promising companies in drug discovery, and its Head of Discovery Biology Anirban Datta said:

“Vaccines and the current anti-viral drugs are retrospective solutions that don’t treat newly emergent strains. We need a different strategy to avoid always being one step behind viral mutations.

“Verseon’s thinking is to focus on blocking the host mechanism through which SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) enters cells. Unlike viruses, the host’s cells don’t mutate, so going after the proteins on host cells that allow viral entry is a long-term solution.

“Given the emergence of yet another highly infectious strain like omicron, we have just started a program at Verseon that does exactly that.”

Data added that other coronaviruses and influenza strains use the same mechanism as SARS-CoV-2 to infect cells – a key point, since it won’t be the last pandemic to affect humanity.

Paul Stannard, Chairman of the World Nano Foundation said: “This is exactly why our not-for-profit organisation has put together an international consortium of investment partners for future pandemic protection and preparedness.

“Because eventually encroachment on natural habitats, handling practices for living and butchered animals, or other issues will introduce yet another pathogen against which humans have no natural defense, so we are in a race against time to develop broad-spectrum antiviral drugs that block entry into our body cells.

And the stakes could be far higher next time, according to Dr. Mike Ryan Executive Director of the Health Emergencies Program at WHO (World Health Organization):

“This pandemic has been very severe. It has affected every corner of this planet. But this is not necessarily the big one.”

Another anti-viral drug hit the headlines this week when the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) announced that it would deploy Sotrovinab, a GlaxoSmithKline anti-viral drug for clinically vulnerable patients, such as cancer patients, organ transplant recipients and other high-risk groups.

Jack Hare 5/25/21 Jack Hare 5/25/21

Surging nanomedicine investments improve global healthcare and pandemic protection

COVID-19’s outbreak has coincided with investments flooding into nanomedicine healthcare companies, according to the latest data.

Nano Magazine have highlighted a report by marketdataforecast.com that the global nanomedicine market worth $141.34 billion in 2020, will rise to $258.11bn by 2025.

The report also highlights a huge upsurge of investment support from governments and funds to develop nano therapies for vaccines, diagnostic imaging, regenerative medicine, and drug delivery following the impact of COVID-19.

Furthermore, nanomedicines offer huge advantages for wider healthcare also impacted by the pandemic and Long-COVID after-effects upon cardiovascular, respiratory, neurological, immunological-related diseases.

This aligns with investment monitoring platform Pitchbook’s forecast that health tech investment overall will top $10 trillion by 2022 and that nanomedicine investment has grown the sector by 250% in the last five years.

Median nanotech healthcare deal sizes have also doubled since 2019, from £1 million to £2m in 2021, while the number of deals in 2020 was greater than ever, overtaking 100 deals in a single year for the first time.

*Nanomedicine is transforming healthcare innovation and delivering early intervention and targeted drug delivery and testing*

Investment is already aiding innovation as nanotech researchers and scientists work to improve biomedical devices such as prosthetics, provide new cancer treatments, and develop bone healing therapies, along with more innovations that could transform global healthcare.

Nanotech researchers have found nanobodies that block the COVID-19 and, potentially, other coronaviruses from entering cells and developed mask designs at nanoscale making them both cheaper and more effective.

The fast global response to the pandemic was also enabled by nanotechnology, being pivotal in Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccine development and Innova Medical Group’s 30-minute lateral flow COVID tests.

World Nano Foundation co-founder Paul Stannard said COVID-19 highlighted weaknesses in healthcare systems across the developed world, proving that long-term, innovative solutions are needed to enable change and prevent future pandemics, with nanomedicine playing an ever greater role in this transformation of global healthcare.

And while impressed by rising investments in and recognition for the nanotech sector, he warned against any let-up in this trend:

“Nanotechnology is not only crucial to our current healthcare systems, but researchers and scientists in this field are on the cusp of therapies, devices, and innovation that will revolutionise how we move forward.”

“To ensure pandemic preparedness, high-quality healthcare, and longevity, we must invest in nano healthtech and care innovations.”

His message was echoed by Kojo Annan (son of late and former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan) who is a general partner in the Luxembourg-based Vector Innovation Fund, which recently launched a sub-fund raising an initial $300m for pandemic protection and preparedness.

Annan said: “A virtuous circle is developing between investment and healthtech.

“Lately, we have seen the development of multiple vaccines, acceleration of technologies linked to decoding the genome, the rise of nanomedicine and the use of artificial intelligence to monitor infectious diseases and new pathogens.

“More investment in sustainable healthtech funding can only accelerate this trend, bringing fairer and global distribution of healthcare, greater affordability, and preventive and early intervention healthcare, all ultimately improving the longevity of life.

“The pandemic has also transformed telemedicine investment and demonstrated that nanoscience and innovation could deliver more resilient societies and ecosystems for healthcare.”

Jack Hare 4/13/21 Jack Hare 4/13/21

Lessons of COVID-19 trigger radical 10-year Government plan to level up healthcare

· Health plan will target smoking, obesity, food, clean air, and child health

· Priority given to levelling up ‘postcode inequalities’ in healthcare

· Technology-led investment will drive better diagnostics, early intervention and more de-centralised health system

A year of COVID-19 has exposed decades of travelling the tragically wrong path in UK healthcare according to a Government-backed ‘Levelling Up Health’ (LUH) presentation and report today.

Specialists drawn from healthcare, academia and industry heard how the pandemic may have caused 40,000 needless UK deaths, highlighted postcode-driven inequalities in healthcare, and confirmed the UK literally as ‘the sick man of Europe’.

It will now drive a radical shake-up with Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for England, Prof Chris Whitty, as a ‘health supremo’ overseeing all issues feeding into the nation’s well-being and longevity and reporting direct to the Prime Minister and his Cabinet.

A 10-year Health Improvement Plan will target smoking, obesity, food, clean air, and child health and Prof Whitty said the NHS would also be re-shaped, within a 10-year plan for unified action across all functions including Whitehall:

“No-one owns the whole problem and therefore we aim to bring these different government departments together in terms of resources and budgets.”

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the LUH report had had been widely praised ahead of publication, and had prompted a re-focussing on the nation’s health and a goal to add five years to people’s longevity by 2035:

“80% of our budget goes on acute care, in other words patching people up, and we have to change this in one of the most important healthcare reforms for a generation.”

Mr Hancock highlighted two main themes to this: Prof Whitty’s new remit and how “the NHS will benefit from this through reversing the silos that exist currently.”

He said Whitehall had to change too, as things like transport and air quality both impact on health, but relevant budgets are split between different government departments – Prof Whitty’s new role was to help bring these together.

Mr Hancock said: “This is a unique opportunity and there has never been a better time to do this following the huge learning from managing COVID-19, where we have broken these silos to create real impact and change and this has never been better illustrated than through the vaccine programme.”

He added that investment in technology and a healthcare model based on prevention, early detection and early intervention is key to the Government’s 10-year plan.

Mr Hancock also highlighted the importance of the Government’s data strategy, as identifying people’s genome is massively helping with diagnostics, and enabling much better health outcomes through use of AI and other early intervention measures.

The LUH report said its ‘Ten-Year Health Improvement Plan’, along with targeted funding for areas with poor health, would complement the Government’s post-COVID ‘Building Back Better’ blueprint for economic growth, improved health resilience, and reduced health inequalities:

“A healthier nation would be a great asset and a great investment. There would be public support for launching such an ambition,” said the report, underpinning this through stark facts and comment:

· 90% of those who died with COVID had significant prior poor health.

· The most deprived places had much higher COVID deaths; 345 per 100,00 in Blackburn and Darwen - five times more than South Cambridgeshire (68 per 100,000) – and suggesting that 40,000 fewer people would have died if the whole nation’s healthcare had been ‘levelled up’.

· The UK has the unhealthiest population in Europe: a significant drag on economic growth that also increases our exposure to future pandemics.

· Health is the principal reason for 1.2 million people aged 50-64 being out of work, and people living in the most deprived places in England get significant long-term poor health conditions 19 years earlier than those in the least deprived ones, and they stop work earlier and die earlier.

· Health inequality between the North and South costs £13 billion a year in lost productivity and 30% of the productivity gap between the North and the rest of England is due to ill-health.

· Premature poor health increases demand on the NHS, for social care and welfare support; becoming healthier is fundamental to growth, resilience, and NHS sustainability.

Paul Stannard, co-founder of the not-for-profit World Nano Foundation attended the meeting and said: “I was pleased to hear Mr Hancock talk about early diagnosis and prevention being key, as many of the waiting lists are not for treatments but caused by delays in testing and diagnostics. It was also good to hear the Government’s commitment to diagnostic hubs and genomic sequencing.

“COVID-19 has been devastating but this is just the response needed to re-shape our healthcare system to be protected and prepared for the world’s next major health threat, while also transitioning to a more de-centralised, point-of-care, early intervention model benefitting from the latest healthcare technology.

“Rapid deployment of new vaccines and rapid mass testing devices show what can be achieved when the will and investment are fully behind healthcare.

“That’s why we have partnered with the Vector Innovation Fund to launch an initial $300 million international healthtech sub-fund for pandemic protection and preparedness that will have a wider impact on future healthcare provision.

“Investment in nanotechnology diagnostics, therapies, novel treatments, genome sequencing, and precision medicines is already helping the cause with record amounts of funding enabling healthtech advances in less than a year, which would have taken 10 years previously, along with delivering wearable health sensors, telemedicine, highly-targeted drugs and treatments, as well as breakthroughs in testing.”

Jack Hare 4/8/21 Jack Hare 4/8/21

‘COVID decade’ creates $10 trillion impact upon healthcare innovation investment

Healthcare technology investment in 2020 soared 47% to a new high of $51 billion and figures show it will rocket to even greater heights.

Overall healthcare investment is tipped to pass $10 trillion by 2022 on a 10-year upward trajectory, already being called the ‘COVID decade’ for investment into disruptive innovation supporting pandemic protection and preparedness.

The spin-off from this research is also creating opportunities to democratise and decentralise healthcare through early detection diagnostics and early intervention therapies, and precision medicine, all set to transform global health and human longevity.

A further sign of where new investment is going came with the recent launch of a $300 million Pandemic Protection Sub-fund by the Luxembourg-based Vector Innovation Fund (VIF) focusing on this ‘new age’ healthtech, and preparation for the next global healthcare challenge.

The new fund forms part of $17 billion (source: Pitchbook) in venture funding for healthcare innovation in recent years related to infectious diseases.

Scottish Health Innovations reports how accelerating investment has advanced the healthcare sector 10 years in just six months, through new data-driven technologies and digitisation, while vaccines have developed at unprecedented speed; the research and rollout for the Pfizer and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines were the fastest in history.

Testing has improved too; lateral flow tests (LFTs) from the world’s largest manufacturer, Innova Medical, are now 99.9% accurate yet take just 30 minutes to show results and help identify new variants and isolate asymptomatic carriers.

Using cutting edge nanotechnology these LFTs have been adopted by a world class UK testing and vaccine regime, now including a new national health agency UKHSA to protect against future health threats.

But far more is needed to avoid repetition of COVID-19’s devastation: 2.74m deaths to date, $5.6 trillion in global GDP lost, plus severe financial, health, and social impacts - mental health problems, unemployment, and poverty have all soared, while many people with life-threatening diseases have gone undiagnosed.

And the world is still alarmingly unprepared for another pandemic. COVID-19 was transmitted from animals, and scientists now know that two new ‘zoonotic’ viruses have done this every year for the last century, yet the Royal Society of Chemistry claims only 10 of 220 viruses known to infect humans have antiviral drugs available to combat them.

Against such odds, says the Executive Chair of Scottish Health Innovations, Graham Watson, healthcare innovation, rapid development, and early adoption must become routine in what he calls an “optimal investment ecosystem”.

This had been lacking according to leading medical journal, The Lancet, which reported that a pre-COVID assessment exposed a need for faster medical manufacturing and distribution during a possible pandemic, and commented: "A true, end-to-end R&D ecosystem must deliver needed products to people as rapidly as possible, and at scale in a globally fair and equitable fashion.”

Paul Sheedy, co-founder of the not-for-profit World Nano Foundation, argued strongly against any easing of investment into nanomedicines, and nano diagnostics towards better healthcare and pandemic protection:

"Nanomedicine investment alone grew 250% in the last five years, according to Pitchbook, while equity funding to digital health companies hit an all-time high last year, reaching $26.5 billion, but it has to be maintained if we are to avoid the human and economic devastation of another COVID.”

Jack Hare 4/1/21 Jack Hare 4/1/21

Five Steps to Defeat the Next Pandemic

World Nano Foundation Co-Founder Paul Sheedy recently featured in The American, discussing five key steps to defeat the next pandemic to come along.

Pathogen surveillance

Humans now live ever-closer to animals, increasing the risk of new and unknown infections crossing from species such as bats and pangolins – the suspected ‘bridges’ for the COVID-19 infection – into humans, while global travel enables the rapid spread of any outbreak. Peter Daszak, an expert virus hunter at the EcoHealth Alliance research group, suggests governments should track and intervene against emerging viruses as they would terrorists, before they wreak havoc, but it is a big task. Daszak estimates there are some 1.7 million unknown mammal viruses that could spread to humans and proposes a $1 billion programme to identify at least two-thirds of these, so resources can be tailored to track and reduce pandemic risk. Others call for consensus on the right actions for the start of an outbreak to avoid the inconsistent response to COVID’s arrival; the jury is still out on which countries made the right calls on social distancing and lockdowns.

A tougher ‘World Health Organisation’

COVID-19 has highlighted the need for a cohesive global pandemic surveillance and response partnership. The World Health Organization should be that body but has been criticised for deference to China and for being slow to declare COVID as a global emergency. The WHO’s response was that it must stay diplomatic and cannot force member states to reply to its requests. But experts argue that if the world is to get better at spotting and then acting against the next pandemic, then individual nations must not hide local outbreaks until they erupt into global issues, as happened with COVID in China and Ebola in West Africa. Instead, it needs to be a more coordinated approach under a beefed up WHO-style body – one label being used is “a biological NATO” with rapid response powers. This ‘super-WHO’ might also use combined financial muscle to: fund elimination of ‘wet markets’ where wild and live animals are sold for food; discourage jungle deforestation - which pushes animals and the viruses closer to humans - and train more local field workers in remote regions to augment the current ad hoc system where the WHO, charities, universities and volunteers combine against emerging threats, but risk being too slow.

Genetic sequencing

Virus ‘Tracking and Tracing’ has enjoyed a mixed press during the COVID-19 pandemic and many scientists think it should give way to gene sequencing, made possible by a huge increase in the number of such machines, making it possible to sequence a virus genome for as little as $50. This would allow tracking and data on the virus to be assessed quickly and acted upon while also gathering intelligence on possible mutations and their resistance to current vaccines. The UK has become a leader here and used sequencing to identify what has become known as the ‘UK variant’ of COVID-19.

Faster vaccine development

One area where governments responded well against COVID-19 is in quickly developing several effective vaccines against the virus, but experts warn that we up the pace: better preparation could have made current vaccines available even earlier, while new ones need to be evolved or developed now against COVID variants and other threats as yet unknown. Some say the goal must be investment in vaccines and drugs that protect against multiple viruses.

Ironing out distribution and logistics

In a world of Amazon deliveries and supermarket shelves groaning with produce from far-flung places, it might be thought that moving medicines should be equally simple and well-organised, but COVID-19 has shown the opposite. The sometimes chaotic acquisition and transporting of Personal Protection Equipment as well as movement and distribution of vaccines – some with sensitive shipping and storage needs – plus the ad hoc vaccination infrastructures, all show that more needs to be done in this area. Incoming US President Joe Biden moved quickly to sets up an American network of mobile community vaccination centres.

Jack Hare 3/31/21 Jack Hare 3/31/21

Soaring healthtech investment is more than just a shot in the arm

Healthcare technology investment soared 47% last year, to a new high of $51bn in 2020.

Venture capital (VC) fundraising was particularly strong across the sector with $17bn available in new venture funds focused on healthcare.

Nanomedicine investment alone grew by x2.5 in the last five years, according to Pitchbook. The investment monitoring platform also reported that 2020's global funding for digital health and telemedicine rose 45% over the previous year, while equity funding to digital health companies hit an all-time high last year, reaching $26.5 billion.

Rather than a COVID-19 driven 'shot in the arm', such growth supports a long-term healthcare industry projection that it will be worth over $10 trillion by 2022.

Since Jan 2021 £3.79bn has been invested into tech companies delivering disruptive innovations specifically related to pandemic protection and preparedness, but also having wider applications and impact for global health – a trend set to continue for the next 10 years, now being called the 'COVID decade'.

And whilst the world needs this major boost to avoid being caught out by future pandemics, it is also creating new opportunities to democratise and decentralise healthcare through early detection diagnostics, precision medicine and early intervention therapies that will transform global health.

This will create a more sustainable point of care-based healthcare ecosystem that is more affordable and available to everyone, say, health experts.

The message is already being picked up. A recent report by tech market analysis specialists CB Insights stated that healthcare start-ups attracted a record $80.6 billion in equity funding in 2020, and general investment in the sector grew in the three consecutive quarters after the outbreak, helping to drive intense innovation.

Some experts suggest the sector has advanced 10 years in just six months, with new data-driven technologies and digitisation practices being used more, while vaccines have developed at unprecedented speed; the research and rollout for the Pfizer and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines were the fastest in history.

Testing has improved, too; the largest manufacturer of lateral flow tests, Innova medical group, has produced LFTs that is at least 99.99% specific while taking just 30 minutes to show results. These simple tests use colloidal gold nanoparticles and are now being manufactured and supplied to countries around the world, particularly by the UK, which has built a world-class testing and vaccine programme.

Harvard professor Dr. Michael Mina has been a major advocate of frequent mass testing using LFTs in the community and workplace to stop the spread of virus transmission and said:

"An over-the-counter rapid test is a tremendous advance. It means that some people will have ready access to a much-needed test to help know their status, without having to go through a physician."

A world-first new national health agency is also launching in the UK in April 2021, focusing on prevention of and response to external health threats such as infectious diseases.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) will protect against future health threats and take over the COVID-19 pandemic response from Public Health England (PHE) and NHS Test and Trace. This includes harnessing the data analytics and genomic surveillance capabilities of both organisations, along with scale testing and contract tracing capability.

But far more is needed to avoid repetition of COVID-19's devastation, which has caused 2.74m deaths to date, plus severe financial, health, and social impacts.

An estimated $5.6 trillion in global GDP has been lost, and the World Bank states the global recession is the deepest since WW2 and twice the depth of the 2008 financial crash; and mental health problems, unemployment, and poverty have all increased, while many people with underlying, life-threatening diseases have gone undiagnosed.

And the world is still alarmingly unprepared for another outbreak. It's been reported that two new viruses have spilled over to human hosts every year for the last century, while the Royal Society of Chemistry claims only 10 of 220 viruses known to infect humans have clinically approved antiviral drugs available to combat them.

We now know that the current Coronavirus was transmitted into humans through bats and other animals, according to the latest World Health Organisation report. This will continue to happen, so investment into technologies that analyse these trends is essential.

Avoidance of future pandemics also needs fast support for innovation, according to Executive Chair of Scottish Health Innovations Ltd, Graham Watson, who forecasts a future where healthcare innovation, rapid development, and early adoption become routine:

"If modern healthcare innovation is to continue to grow at pace post-pandemic, then having an 'optimal investment ecosystem' is vital to encouraging its advancement."

Despite rising investment and innovation, processes must also evolve to keep pace with healthcare. Leading medical journal The Lancet showed how a 2020 assessment from the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board found gaps in the pre-COVID R&D preparedness ecosystem.

The report exposed a need for capabilities to ensure rapid manufacturing and distribution during a pandemic. Waiting time also needed to be cut so that innovators and scientists could develop new products quickly, an approach proving highly attractive to investment funds.

The Lancet stated: "A true, end-to-end R&D ecosystem must deliver needed products to people as rapidly as possible, and at scale in a globally fair and equitable fashion."

Healthcare investments may not be the only way to get ahead of the next outbreak. Ending deforestation and the wildlife trade would protect us from animal diseases transferring to humans. Investing to prevent these acts could stop outbreaks in the first place.

Paul Sheedy, co-founder of the not-for-profit World Nano Foundation, advocates continued investment into nanotechnology towards better healthcare and pandemic protection:

"Healthcare innovation is more exciting than ever, with new technologies and techniques being developed and improving constantly. Increased investment into healthcare during COVID-19 has been outstanding but must be maintained.

"2.74m people to date have lost their lives during this pandemic, global economies have entered recession, unemployment and poverty have risen substantially, suicides and mental health cases are increasing, and there are fears many people have gone undiagnosed with life-threatening diseases because of COVID protocol.

"Continued, efficient investment where innovators can access critical capital at a faster rate is crucial to developing healthcare innovations that can prevent and combat future pandemics."

A new healthtech fund was launched in March by the Vector Innovation Fund, raising an initial $300m for its sub-fund for pandemic protection and future healthcare, focusing on precision medicine, advanced point of care, and AI technologies that support sustainable healthcare, the global economy and human longevity.

Jack Hare 3/18/21 Jack Hare 3/18/21

Nanotech-powered £1 a day testing strategy can accelerate global recovery from pandemic

The rapid mass testing strategy costing just £1 a day per child can get children back to school and economies up and running, according to experts.

That is the small price of the rapid mass testing across schools in the UK, which is also hard on the heels of one of the world’s swiftest and most successful vaccination programmes.

A double whammy of rapid testing and vaccine deployment applied internationally could lead to a reduction of the human and economic hardship caused by much-criticised lockdown strategies, as well as the continued failure of ‘Track and Trace,’ which has swallowed up £32 billion in the UK.

The UK Government’s investment in vaccines started early, but its equally far-sighted adoption of inexpensive lateral flow test (LFT) kits is less well known.

The economical LFT utilizes nanoparticles to detect virus fragments in a test sample, identifying whether a subject is SARS-CoV-2 asymptomatic within 30 minutes. An individual can immediately isolate after a positive test, preventing transmission of COVID-19 at a rapid pace.

Some early scepticism about the devices has since been overwhelmed by new data and a robust rebuttal from Dr Susan Hopkins, COVID-19 Strategic Response Director to Public Health England, who said:

“Up to one in three people who have coronavirus never show any symptoms (asymptomatic) but that does not mean they are not infectious. Using LFTs enables us to rapidly identify people in the population who are asymptomatic, with results produced in 30 minutes.

“Lateral flow devices are effective at finding people with high viral loads who are most infectious and most likely to transmit the virus to others.”

And she added that the latest data suggested LFTs “are at least 99.9% specific which means that the risk of false positives is extremely low – less than one in a thousand.”

UK Government-sponsored LFT use in workplaces is already widespread, with nearly 50,000 UK businesses already registered for free kits, so that employees can be tested at least twice a week with fast results, enabling them to return to work and their children to get back into the classroom.

Each pupil must take two tests (£3.50 each) a week to show whether they need to be taken out of class to avoid infecting others and the same approach will be used for parents in the workplace.

“That’s remarkable value-for-money. £1 a day for an ‘insurance policy’ to enable schools to open, mums and dads to properly return to work, and the country to accelerate out of lockdown with the re-opening of hospitality and major venues no longer a distant prospect,” said Paul Sheedy, Co-founder of the not-for-profit World Nano Foundation (WNF) that promotes healthcare innovation and believes mass testing kits using nanotechnology are central to future pandemic protection.

Sheedy himself has co-developed Test2Suppress™ modelling to highlight how an LFT ‘Test to Suppress’ campaign allows early detection and immediate isolation, reducing the need for lockdowns.

He added: “The Government is rightly cautious about ending lockdown too early, so its medical advisors will pore over the data to check that the return to school and all workplaces maintain the falling infection rate.”

The next major battle will be the full re-opening of hospitality and major sporting and entertainment venues.

Britain’s Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden has announced plans for 20,000 fans to watch the FA Cup Final on May 15 and for a dozen other events, including the World Snooker Championships starting on April 17, to go ahead providing spectators return a negative LFT and can be tested again afterwards. This means they will not need to comply with social distancing at the event.

This level of social interaction will finalise ‘Operation Moonshot’ – the Johnson Government’s use of targeted mass testing to halt and drive back COVID-19.

Daniel Elliott, CEO of Innova Medical Group – the world's biggest supplier of COVID-19 LFT kits – confirmed that the UK government was his biggest customer, with a billionth kit about to be delivered and the company looking to open a UK production site to meet demand.

Innova is also in discussions with UK pharmacy chains to sell direct to consumers and Elliott added: "A mass testing strategy is most protective in businesses like personal care, pubs, clubs and a lot of events, where close contact in enclosed spaces can't be avoided."

Arnold Kristoff 3/2/21 Arnold Kristoff 3/2/21

Bill Gates predicted the pandemic and now warns of future dangers

Bill Gates believes we are living with imminent and much more dangerous pandemic outbreaks while also fighting Climate Change.

The Microsoft founder and philanthropist previously warned of a COVID-19 style global pandemic in a 2015 Ted Talk and made his latest predictions in a Veritasium YouTube interview about his new book.

Asked ‘what will be the next global disaster?’ he responded by suggesting a more sinister pandemic deliberately caused by humans, plus the ongoing spectre of Climate Change:

“Also related to pandemics is something people don’t like to talk about much, which is bioterrorism; that somebody who wants to cause damage could engineer a virus and so that means the cost of running into this is more than just the naturally caused pandemics like this current one.”

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has already donated billions of dollars towards innovations and technology to prevent and protect against pandemics: in 2010 the foundation pledged $10bn to vaccine development over ten years and then gave an extra $250m in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The potential need and growth in this sector is also attracting investment, as highlighted by the recent launch of the Luxembourg-based Vector Innovation Fund, with its $300m Pandemic Protection sub-fund based around investment in technology for future healthcare in preparation for the ‘next COVID’, and unlocking potential growth, value and prosperity from innovative and disruptive technologies.

This sub-fund is helping ignite the new tech driven investment era in global healthcare, a sector tipped to soar by 50% extra each year towards a market worth $1.333 trillion by 2027 (source: Precedence Research 2020).

In a recent Forbes interview, Bill Gates suggested that we must prepare for future pandemics as if they were a threat of war, and the Gates’ foundation’s annual letter for 2020 called on wealthy nations to invest tens of billions of dollars to be ready for the next pandemic after Covid-19.

Gates’ heavyweight support was welcomed by The World Nano Foundation (WNF) the not-for-profit organisation that advances innovation and commercialisation of nanoscale technologies.

WNF Co-founder Paul Sheedy said: “Not only is Bill Gates pledging huge amounts from his own foundation, but also calling for government and private investment in global issues like pandemic protection and Climate Change where nanotechnologies can play a vital part.”

Nanotechnology had helped speed development and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, investment to develop a universal mRNA vaccine and other measures that will be crucial to global protection from another virus outbreak, and Sheedy concluded:

“Nanomedicines and nano-based diagnostics and other nanotechnology breakthroughs have been vital to the on-going COVID-19 battle, highlighting the need to back the science and technology with investment that can benefit us all while delivering value and extending human longevity.”

Image: Frederic Legrand/Shutterstock

Jack Hare 2/25/21 Jack Hare 2/25/21

World Nano Foundation backs key steps for pandemic protection and preparedness

When the inquest opens on millions of deaths caused by COVID-19, the questions should be: “How did it catch us out?”, “what did we learn” and “what do we do in future?”

The unpalatable answer to the first question “how did it catch us out?” is: “It shouldn’t have.”

“What did we learn?” along with “what do we do in future?” according to the World Nano Foundation (WNF) the not-for-profit organisation that advances innovation and commercialisation of nanoscale technologies.

WNF Co-founder Paul Sheedy said: “With the human and economic costs of COVID still rising, all nations surely know they must invest in technology and innovation against ongoing pandemic threats, especially after ignoring previous warning signs.

“We had had successive COVID-like outbreaks like SARS and MERS, the shocking 2014-16 Ebola outbreak in Africa which killed more than 11,000 and now threatens to erupt again in Liberia, plus historic devastation from events like Spanish Flu (1918-20) which killed up to 50 million people globally, and ongoing killers like Cholera.

“Some Asia-Pacific nations, notably Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, New Zealand and Australia heeded recent warnings and put early intervention measures in place that moderated COVID’s impact, but most of the rest of the world failed to prepare early enough to act using data and technology within diagnostics, tele-medicine, universal vaccines, nanomedicines and early intervention treatments.

He quoted a recent Bloomberg report suggesting that the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) received a detailed plan from pharma firm GlaxoSmithKline in 2017 suggesting vaccine technologies to pursue, plus an organisational chart for a 180-strong task force of scientists, doctors, and others to execute the scheme at a cost of $595 million over 10 years.

Sheedy added: “Amazingly, an operation like this was well within the brief envisaged by Washington when it created BARDA in 2006, effectively to develop or procure drugs and vaccines, and promote action against bioterrorism plus pandemic and infectious threats.”

The Bloomberg report highlighted how Glaxo even offered an under-utilized lab and production plant in Rockville, Maryland and experts there who might work alongside government agencies and non-profit organisations on vaccines, but nothing came of the company’s initiative.

Sheedy added: “It looks like a major lost opportunity, compounded by a US government decision to disband the dedicated pandemic response unit at the National Security Council in May 2018, at a time when nanotechnology initiatives could have made great strides to protect against the current disaster.

“It’s not as though COVID hit us like a tsunami; not only had we witnessed those earlier and similar infectious diseases, but many experts were warning in late 2019 about what to expect, and now we all do – at a cost far higher than if governments had acted on those earlier pandemics,

“The good news is the whole world knows it is now time to invest in advanced technologies to save lives and our economies in relation to the long-term effects of long COVID on healthcare and before another pandemic hits, and this kind of investment will also have a positive impact on healthcare provision generally.”

This awareness is reflected by the recent launch of the Luxembourg-based Vector Innovation Fund, with its $300m Pandemic Protection sub-fund based around better protection and preparedness from infectious diseases using technologies that enhance future global healthcare and to unlock potential growth and prosperity from innovative and disruptive technologies such as nanoscale innovations.

This sub-fund will target the long-term effects of COVID-19 on healthcare and future pandemics and ignite a new tech-driven era in global healthcare, a sector tipped to soar by 50% extra each year towards a market worth $1.333 trillion by 2027 (source: Precedence Research 2020)

Paul Sheedy also endorsed a five-point pandemic ‘insurance’ plan in the Bloomberg report: “Five steps towards victory against the next pandemic threat – whatever that may be.”

The five steps for pandemic protection:

Pathogen surveillance

Peter Daszak, an expert virus hunter at the EcoHealth Alliance research group, suggests governments should track and intervene against emerging viruses as they would terrorists, before they wreak havoc, but it is a big task.

Daszak estimates there are some 1.7 million unknown mammal viruses that could spread to humans and proposes a $1 billion programme to identify at least two-thirds of these, so resources can be tailored to track and reduce pandemic risk.

Others call for consensus on the right actions for the start of an outbreak to avoid the inconsistent response to COVID’s arrival; the jury is still out on which countries made the right calls on social distancing and lockdowns.

A tougher ‘World Health Organisation’

COVID-19 has highlighted the need for a cohesive global pandemic surveillance and response partnership.

The World Health Organization should be that body but has been criticised for deference to China and for being slow to declare COVID as a global emergency. The WHO’s response was that it must stay diplomatic and cannot force member states to reply to its requests.

But experts argue that if the world is to get better at spotting and then acting against the next pandemic, then individual nations must not hide local outbreaks until they erupt into global issues, as happened with COVID in China and Ebola in West Africa.

Instead, it needs to be a more co-ordinated approach under a beefed up WHO-style body – one label being used is “a biological NATO” with rapid response powers.

This ‘super-WHO’ might also use combined financial muscle to: fund elimination of ‘wet markets’ where wild and live animals are sold for food; discourage jungle deforestation - which pushes animals and the viruses closer to humans -; and train more local field workers in remote regions to augment the current ad hoc system where the WHO, charities, universities and volunteers combine against emerging threats, but risk being too slow.

Genetic sequencing

This would allow tracking and data on the virus to be assessed quickly and acted upon while also gathering intelligence on possible mutations and their resistance to current vaccines.

The UK has become a leader here and used sequencing to identify what has become known as the ‘UK variant’ of COVID-19.

Faster vaccine development

Some say the goal must be investment in vaccines and drugs that protect against multiple viruses.

Ironing out distribution and logistics

In a world of Amazon deliveries and supermarket shelves groaning with produce from far flung places, it might be thought that moving medicines should be equally simple and well-organised, but COVID-19 has shown the opposite.

The sometimes chaotic acquisition and transporting of Personal Protection Equipment as well as movement and distribution of vaccines – some with sensitive shipping and storage needs – plus the ad hoc vaccination infrastructures, all show that more needs to be done in this area.

Incoming US President Joe Biden moved quickly to sets up an American network of mobile community vaccination centres.

Jack Hare 2/9/21 Jack Hare 2/9/21

UK GOVERNMENT AND SCIENTIFIC EXPERTS GET BEHIND COMMUNITY RAPID MASS TESTING

Following on from UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s quoted £7bn mass testing “Moonshot” programme where the government are deploying over £1.2bn’s worth of rapid lateral flow antigen tests to identify asymptomatic cases in communities and workplaces.

In what many believe was a game changer in preventing lockdowns across the world, in the UK, community and workplace lateral flow rapid test kits (LFTs) have been mobilised now for door-to-door delivery – the UK government has secured more than 400 million of these kits – for its “Test to Suppress” strategy as well as to address fears that the South African variant had broken out in areas of the country.

The World Nano Foundation and scientific leaders say regular use of inexpensive mass lateral flow rapid antigen test kits is the way to beat COVID-19, its variants, and future viruses. Governments and politicians are now reducing the spread of the virus and ensuring a quicker return to normality for their electorate and themselves by adopting a mass testing approach to pinpoint hotspots, thus targeting areas, and preventing wide scale restrictions.

As vaccination quickens for vulnerable members of society, the next prize is to get the world’s economies moving, with mass frequent testing as the key, using the mantra ‘test to suppress’, and as an early warning system to protect against new strains and future outbreaks. By using mass rapid testing, it can be identified where there are infectious cases and ensure that the virus is not passed on, breaking chains of transmission and allowing non-infected communities to continue without disruption.

These simple-to-manufacture rapid tests have shown a thousand-fold increase in the effectiveness and accuracy of testing with this technology. The kits can produce a positive result even when there are fewer antigens to the virus in the sample – vital for finding asymptomatic individuals and ‘super-spreaders’.

Many other countries and industries are now adopting this technology.

This week, The Biden administration announced the investment of $230 million in at-home coronavirus testing kits, to identify cases of the virus across the country to break chains of transmission and prevent new strains from disrupting communities and workplaces.

Innova Medical – the world's largest manufacturer of rapid lateral flow antigen tests is ramping up to 50 million a day by the spring – has also confirmed that its COVID-19 product is effective in detecting variant strains such as the British (Kent), South African, and Brazilian variants, which appear more contagious than the earlier strains.

"As these dangerous strains show signs of increased transmissibility across communities, the global effort to eliminate COVID-19 requires frequent, comprehensive and equitable testing that can detect these emerging strains," said Daniel Elliott, President and CEO of Innova Medical Group.

Elliot added that numerous studies have shown that rapid antigen tests are an important tool for identifying infectious people quickly and equitably, even when they may not have COVID-19 symptoms, in ways not possible with slower, more expensive, centralised lab-based tests.

He said the virus continues to morph its genetic ribonucleic acid (RNA) to generate new and potentially more contagious variants, but Innova's antigen test is effective because it looks for multiple proteins in the virus.

Workplace and community rapid mass testing is already starting to take place to keep economies moving and the entertainment and sports industries are said to be looking at a ‘day pass’ testing approach using LFT kits, in the same way that temperature checks were made on people using restaurants and pubs between lockdowns.

A trial is already under way in France using a music theatre to give day pass security so that people can start attending mass events again.

World Health Organisation Special Envoy on COVID-19, David Nabarro, had already suggested this approach:

"We’ve seen it (rapid mass testing) used in many different locations, for example in trying to keep aircraft free of people who’ve got COVID or looking after major events.”

A UK Government initiative offering LFTs in workplaces - healthcare, education, and local authorities, with private companies such as Royal Mail, the DVLA and Tate & Lyle Sugars also adopting frequent rapid testing.

Globally renowned British doctors’ journal, The Lancet, backed this approach after publishing an exhaustive study of quarantine and testing measures, and leading UK scientists and clinical experts have added their weight.

Oxford University researchers found the UK Government's most sensitive LFTs detected 83-90% of all infectious cases of COVID-19 and, with the UK investing more than £1.5bn in these test kits so far.

Oxford’s Regius Professor of Medicine, Sir John Bell underlined the benefit of these tests removing infectious people from high-risk environments: “They’ve found 25,000 cases just in healthcare, which may have prevented tens of thousands of cases of the disease.”

Tim Peto, Professor of Medicine, Infectious Disease, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, Oxford University addressed the contrasts between PCR (polymerase chain reaction) swab testing and lateral flow kits:

“PCR is very good at telling you’ve had the virus or got the virus, but it doesn’t tell you whether you are infectious or not and the other problem about the swab test is that it takes a day or two…to get the answer back. The LFT has the enormous advantage of giving you an answer in about 30 minutes.”

He said this allows immediate self-isolation and individuals can also quickly advise their contacts so, “within a few hours, a local outbreak can be detected. This can’t be done with the swab (PCR) tests” adding that LFTs “detect people with high viral loads…the very people who are infectious.”

The World Nano Foundation (WNF) promotes healthcare technology and predicts that mass testing is central to future pandemic protection.

The not-for-profit organisation’s Co-founder Paul Sheedy said: “Our research shows how healthcare diagnostics technology will shift dramatically to a more decentralised community early intervention model, against potential epidemics and pandemics.

“The Test2Suppress™ campaign shows that intensive front-line initiatives using rapid test kits available to the individual will allow early detection and immediate isolation, reducing the need for lockdowns.

“And our simulation maps how consecutive daily tests for three days can rapidly identify and isolate infectious people. Weekly testing can then sustain a low infection rate even in a large population.

“A key point previously missed by some experts is that high quality rapid lateral flow tests are not for people who already think they have COVID-19; it’s about everyone else testing frequently to check they are not infectious.

“Used alongside vaccines and other preventative methods, these simple tests have been developed from colloidal gold nanoparticle research and are a vital component in the battle to defeat the virus and it’s future variants.

“Rapid community testing is simpler, faster, cheaper, more effective and mobilises everyone to help themselves, their relatives, friends, and colleagues, to keep everyone safe.

“With the work that we do, we know that there are even more exciting technologies on the way that will be central to the world’s fight for pandemic protection and future healthcare.

“We have already seen the danger from not being on our guard against renewed viral threats. Spanish Flu struck in 1918, killing up to 50 million people in four waves, the last two being most deadly because public health warnings were not adhered to.”

This means that there will be a revolution in healthcare in the coming years. Healthcare investment is forecast to grow at a rate of nearly 50% a year towards a market set to be worth $1.333 trillion by 2027*. The acceleration highlights wide recognition that the world cannot afford the human and economic cost of another pandemic.

One international investment platform is a Pandemic Protection alternative investment fund operated by Vector Innovation Fund in Luxembourg focused on limiting the effect of long form Covid-19, insulating the world against the impact of future pandemics, whilst minimising any impact on the global economy and healthcare provision and preparedness.

The Vector Innovation Fund is a Reserved Alternative Investment Fund (RAIF) specialising in support for technology companies able to transform global markets, notably in global healthcare, sustainability and longevity. These transformational technologies come from the nanotechnology, biotech, AI and machine learning, medical devices, therapies and digital health sectors.

Arnold Kristoff 2/2/21 Arnold Kristoff 2/2/21

Nanotech powered mass testing now the key to unlocking Covid-19 lockdowns

The World Nano Foundation and pandemic experts say regular mass use of inexpensive lateral flow rapid antigen test kits is now the way to beat back against COVID-19, its variants and future virus threats.

As vaccination gathers pace for vulnerable members of the population, the next prize is to re-open societies and get the world’s economies moving, with mass frequent testing as the key, using the mantra ‘test to suppress’, and as an early warning system to protect against new strains and future outbreaks.

These simple-to-manufacture rapid tests employ the nano colloidal gold testing method already used in diagnostics prior to the pandemic. Results have shown a thousand-fold increase in the effectiveness and accuracy of testing with this technology. The kits can produce a positive result even when there is a lower level of antigens of the virus in the sample – vital for finding asymptomatic individuals and potential ‘super-spreaders’.

In what many believe was the trial for nationwide testing to end the lockdown, the UK’s anti-COVID-19 resources were mobilised for a door-to-door delivery of lateral flow test (LFT) kits – the UK government has secured more than 400 million of these – for its test to suppress strategy as well as to address fears that the South African variant had broken out in areas of the country.

Other countries and industry groups are now adopting this technology.

Innova Medical – the world's largest manufacturer of rapid antigen test kits – has also confirmed that its COVID-19 product is effective in detecting variant strains such as the UK (Kent), South Africa, and Brazil variants, which appear more contagious than the original.

Elliot added that numerous scientific studies have shown that rapid antigen tests are an important tool for identifying infectious people quickly and equitably, even when they may not have COVID-19 symptoms, in ways not possible with slower, more expensive, centralised lab-based tests.

Innova produces more than 10 million test kits daily but aims to ramp this up to 50 million by spring and rivals are expected to follow suit.

A trial is already under way in France using a music theatre to give day pass security so that people can start attending mass events again.

World Health Organisation Special Envoy on COVID-19, David Nabarro, had already suggested this approach:

"We’ve seen it (rapid mass testing) used in many different locations, particularly for example in trying to keep aircraft free of people who’ve got COVID or looking after major events.”

Using LFTs will keep economies open, health systems safe and allow audiences to attend entertainment and sporting events, he added.

A UK Government initiative offering LFTs in workplaces started with essential health workers, the education sector, and local authorities in the UK. Private companies have also been given the option – early adopters included the Royal Mail, DVLA and Tate & Lyle Sugars.

Britain’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock said around one in three infected people do not show symptoms, so testing was vital to break the chains of transmission; workplace testing offers peace of mind to those unable to work from home during lockdown.

He added: “LFTs have already been hugely successful in finding positive cases we would not otherwise find, and I encourage employers and workers to take up this offer to help protect essential services and businesses.”

Oxford University researchers found the UK Government's most sensitive LFTs detected 83-90% of all infectious cases of COVID-19 and, with the UK investing more than £1.5bn in these test kits so far, Oxford’s Regius Professor of Medicine Sir John Bell underlined the benefit of these removing infectious people from high-risk environments: “They’ve found 25,000 cases just in healthcare, which may have prevented tens of thousands of cases of the disease.”

The World Nano Foundation (WNF) promotes healthcare technology and predicts that mass testing is central to future pandemic protection.

“Used alongside vaccines, hand-cleansing, and social distancing, these simple tests have been developed from colloidal gold nanoparticle research and are a vital component in the battle to defeat COVID-19, future variants or other viruses.

“Rapid community testing is simpler, faster, cheaper, ultimately more effective and mobilises everyone to help themselves and their relatives, friends, and colleagues – we can all play a part in keeping everyone safe.

“As West Africa reeled under the impact of Ebola (2014-16) the world watched with bated breath to see if the ‘beast’ would go global, but frequent mass rapid testing was deployed at community level multiple times over a few weeks stopping that terrible disease in its tracks.

“With the work that we do, we know that there are even more exciting technologies on the way that will be central to the world’s fight for pandemic protection and future healthcare.

“We have already seen the danger from not being on our guard against renewed viral threats. Spanish Flu struck in 1918 and ultimately killed up to 50 million people in four successive waves, the last two being most deadly because public health warnings were not adhered to.

“The UK Government’s foresight in being first to secure large stocks of rapid lateral flow antigen test supplies by Innova Medical (USA) and SureScreen Diagnostics (UK) may prove to have been a human and economic lifesaver.”

Other innovations include using similar nano technology developed by UC San Diego that turns a face mask a different colour when it detects the presence of COVID-19 in the air that you breathe, allowing everyone to self-monitor easily and simply.

This means that there will be a revolution in the healthcare industry over the next 12 months. Healthcare investment is expected to grow at a rate of nearly 50% a year towards a market set to be worth $1.333 trillion by 2027*. The acceleration highlights wide recognition that the world cannot afford the human and economic cost of another pandemic.

Image: Shutterstock - Mark Duransky