Asia faces significant challenges in pandemic preparedness, as COVID-19 revealed gaps in the efficiency of health services across hospitals, outpatient care, and communities. This has highlighted the need for more resilient and effective crisis response systems. The region also grapples with biologic risks such as emerging infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance, necessitating coordinated prevention and mitigation strategies.

Three expert panel discussions will be held in India, using COVID-19 as a reference point for future pandemic risks, biosecurity challenges, and strategies to improve preparedness. The expert panels will convene stakeholders from government agencies, global organisations, academic institutions, and international partners to engage in meaningful discussions and address key themes, such as leveraging biotechnology to mitigate public health risks and strengthen biological crisis responses. The discussions will assess the capacity of country-level stakeholders in areas such as pandemic preparedness, biosecurity, crisis communication, and leadership strategies. The discussions will also explore the use of data and innovative surveillance platforms to inform bio-threat responses, the establishment of effective governance structures to manage bio-threats, and actionable strategies to enhance resilience against future pandemics in Asia.

The insights from these discussions will be compiled into reports that will inform future strategies and enhance collaboration in tackling emerging biosecurity challenges. In addition, pilot testing of a disease X simulation exercise, after the panel discussions will be conducted in one Asian country.