Advancing Pandemic Preparedness Through Public–Private Collaboration

Key Takeaways

1. Pandemic preparedness is built over time.
Sustained readiness between outbreaks is essential to detecting and responding to emerging threats effectively.

2. Public–private partnerships bring complementary strengths to preparedness.
Public health agencies provide surveillance and coordination, while industry contributes scientific innovation and the ability to scale diagnostic solutions.

3. Cepheid’s preparedness leadership is grounded in long-term collaboration.
Decades of experience and partnerships positioned Cepheid to respond rapidly to COVID‑19 and mpox, and continue strengthening readiness for future threats.

4. The CDC collaboration aims to shorten the path from emerging threat to action.
Early access to samples, data, and insights can help accelerate the development and deployment of diagnostics when time matters most.

Infectious disease threats are not confined to moments of crisis. From persistent, endemic conditions to sudden outbreaks with global consequences, public health systems must be prepared to detect, respond, and adapt continuously—not only when emergencies dominate headlines.

No single sector can meet this challenge alone. Public–private partnerships have become a cornerstone of pandemic preparedness because they bring together complementary strengths: public health agencies contribute surveillance, epidemiological insight, and population‑level coordination, while industry provides scientific innovation, manufacturing scale, and the ability to translate discovery into deployable tools. Together, these partnerships can help shorten the distance between early signals and informed action.¹

Cepheid’s Legacy in Pandemic Response

Cepheid’s role in pandemic response did not begin with COVID‑19. For more than two decades, the company has worked alongside global health organizations to address some of the world’s most pressing infectious disease challenges—most notably tuberculosis, which remains one of the deadliest infectious diseases worldwide.²

By enabling fast molecular testing closer to where patients receive care, Cepheid has helped expand access to accurate diagnostics in settings where laboratory infrastructure is limited, and delays can cost lives. This decentralized testing model—built for speed, reliability, and scalability—has been foundational to Cepheid’s outbreak response efforts.

When COVID‑19 emerged, these capabilities were put to the test. Within weeks of the SARS‑CoV‑2 viral sequence being published, Cepheid launched the first point‑of‑care PCR test for SARS‑CoV‑2 in the United States.³ Leveraging a large global installed base of GeneXpert® systems already in use for respiratory, virology, women’s and sexual health, tuberculosis, and other infectious diseases, Cepheid helped deliver accurate results to healthcare providers in minutes rather than days—supporting clinical decision‑making and public health response at a critical moment.

The COVID‑19 pandemic did not create Cepheid’s preparedness strategy; it validated it. During subsequent outbreaks such as mpox, established public–private partnerships and existing diagnostic capabilities helped support a fast, coordinated response.¹

Deepening Collaboration with the U.S. CDC

Building on this foundation, Cepheid’s recent selection by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as a national collaborator for pandemic preparedness represents a significant next step in strengthening readiness for future threats.

As one of four nationwide collaborators, Cepheid will gain early access to outbreak samples, genomic sequences, and critical data—to enable earlier test development and accelerate the deployment of diagnostic solutions when time matters most. This collaboration reflects a shared commitment to preparedness and to protecting communities most vulnerable to emerging infectious diseases.

At its core, the partnership exemplifies how public health agencies and industry can work together to translate early information into actionable diagnostics—aiming to reduce response timelines and improve outcomes when new threats emerge.
 

What Comes Next: From Crisis Response to Sustained Readiness

Looking ahead, pandemic preparedness is increasingly defined not by episodic crisis response, but by sustained readiness between outbreaks. The next public health emergency may not arrive with the same immediacy or visibility as COVID‑19, but it will demand the same capabilities: recognizing emerging threat signals early, confirming them with reliable diagnostics, and scaling quickly from insight to action.

Meeting this challenge requires long-term collaboration across the public health ecosystem.¹ Public health agencies, healthcare systems, and industry partners each play a distinct role in strengthening preparedness—sharing data, aligning on priorities, and ensuring that diagnostic tools can be developed, scaled, and deployed when and where they are needed most. These partnerships help reduce response timelines and support more coordinated decision-making, particularly for communities at greatest risk.

For Cepheid, continued leadership in global health means investing in this model of preparedness—one that is proactive rather than reactive, and built through sustained collaboration rather than activated only in moments of crisis. By working alongside public health partners to strengthen diagnostic readiness over time, Cepheid is helping lay the groundwork to identify emerging threats sooner and respond more quickly, strengthening health system resilience worldwide.

Together, these efforts point toward a future where outbreaks are identified sooner, responses are more coordinated, and localized threats are less likely to escalate into global crises.