Led by Aman Patel at Technologies for Pandemic Defense

Highly effective personal protective equipment (PPE) is a critical defense tool against future pandemics. PPE that can be deployed rapidly and is pathogen agnostic could reduce transmission and protect critical workers before vaccines or therapeutics are available. However, there is little commercial incentive to invest in these products before a pandemic, when few are buying high-quality PPE products. A pull mechanism could create an incentive to invest in creating such a product now and ensure rapid accessibility during the next pandemic through stockpiling, reusable designs, or capacity commitments.