Dr. Doris Rouse Joins COVID-19 Public-Private Partnership Initiative Led by National Institutes of Health

The initiative will examine the potential of a sustainable public-private partnership to address COVID-19 and future pandemics

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — Dr. Doris Rouse, vice president of global health technologies at RTI International, a nonprofit research institute, has accepted an invitation from National Institutes of Health (NIH) director Dr. Francis Collins to be a member of a new NIH cross-sectoral group that will examine the potential of a sustainable public-private partnership to address COVID-19 and to prepare for future pandemics.

The NIH-led group, consisting of 30 high-level experts and stakeholders, held its first meeting on April 3. The meeting was led by Dr. Collins, and participants included Dr. Anthony Fauci and other representatives from NIH; BARDA Director, Dr. Rick Bright; representatives from pharmaceutical companies, venture capital, the Foundation for NIH, and the U.S.(FDA) and European (EMA) regulatory agencies. The discussion resulted in a collaborative action plan to move forward rapidly and establish working groups for specific topics.

Dr. Rouse’s background includes extensive experience with the formation and operation of public-private partnerships to address global health issues. Most notably, she helped form the TB Alliance, a public-private partnership dedicated to the discovery, development and delivery of better, faster-acting and affordable tuberculosis drugs. With support from Dr. Rouse and RTI, the TB Alliance received FDA approval in 2019 for a drug regimen that treats extensively drug resistant tuberculosis.

To learn more about RTI’s ongoing work related to COVID-19, visit: www.rti.org/emerging-issue/covid-19-research.