In this commentary, NDA's Thomas Lönngren discusses the regulatory learnings from the 2009 pandemic and how these are applicable to the current pandemic.
In April 2009 we were in the middle of an ongoing influenza pandemic and as the Executive Director of the European Medicine Agency I was ultimately responsible for the Agency’s response. EMA’s responsibility was to ensure that we could get a vaccine approved as soon as possible and evaluate potential antivirals for the prevention and treatment of the infection. We also set up a robust surveillance system monitoring the safety of vaccines and antivirals when they were put on the market. All of this had to be done while ensuring that staff and experts working at the agency could continue to operate and deliver advice to developers of vaccines and antivirals while maintaining their own well-being.
One of these proposals was the idea to create what became known as the Mock-up vaccines. Specific guidance was developed by the Agency for an assessment procedure for pandemic influenza vaccines
It was an intense period with many meetings, ensuring the operation of the agency as well as daily teleconferences with European Commission, WHO, other regulators such as the FDA, and the industry. Luckily there were preparations in place. When the pandemic broke out in April 2009 we were not taken by surprise. Warning signals came from WHO as early as the beginning of 2000. The SARS outbreak in 2002 had also served as a wakeup call. The outbreak of bird flu caused by H5N1 virus was an additional indication that a pandemic was imminent.
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