Queensland researchers want to build national stockpile of drugs and test kits for next pandemic

This University of Queensland team have been tasked with preparing to “pandemic-proof” the nation, despite not knowing what the next viral pandemic will look like or when it will hit.

Australia would have a stockpile of medicines and testing tools to tackle the next viral pandemic, under a plan by a group of Queensland researchers.

The team from UQ have no way of knowing what the next viral pandemic would look like or when it would hit, but there are similarities in how the immune system responds and that’s where they’ll start.

Led by virologist Dr Kirsty Short, the researchers are planning to “pandemic-proof” the nation by developing better testing tools and medicines to create a stockpile of validated treatments that can be activated when needed.

The five-year research study will be assisted by a $1.3m National Health and Medical Research Council investigator grant.

It is among the 49 Queensland-based studies sharing in $83.6m of federal government funding — money Health Minister Greg Hunt said would allow researchers to continue making “life-changing and life-altering discoveries”.

Dr Short, who specialises in pandemic-preparedness, said Covid-19 had made clear getting ready for the next big virus was crucial.

UQ virologist Dr Kirsty Short. Picture: Liam Kidston

She said therapeutics tend to be developed to be specific for one specific virus, such as drugs that work well against influenza but not against other viruses.

The UQ researchers plan to develop medicines that could be used in a viral pandemic by targeting immune responses instead of what kind of virus it is, so the tools will be stockpiled in preparation.

Dr Short said the study also hopes to figure out how to develop virus testing kits that would detect an infection earlier.

The research if successful will be the baseline work for Australia’s pandemic preparedness and would need to be maintained and built upon for the future.

Other studies receiving NHMRC funding include four projects out of James Cook University, including research to find next-generation therapeutics by looking at parasitic worms and separate work to find a new tuberculosis vaccine.

NHMRC chief executive Professor Anne Kelso said the funds would help Australia’s “highest performing medical researchers” solve problems in the community.

“The health and medical research sector has contended with the disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic,” she said.

“The sector has delivered against these odds, bringing Australia’s best science and scientists to the problem.”