COVID Vaccines: Policies to end this
pandemic and avoid another one
How should the private and public sectors adapt to further the effort to
vaccinate the U.S. population, produce sufficient supplies for countries that
have thus far had only limited access to the vaccine, and develop booster
vaccines to maintain immunity, particularly in the face of new variants?
Please join us for an interactive discussion with some of Columbia
University’s leading experts.
Topics for discussion will include i) new variants and the urgency of the
Covid-19 vaccine campaign, ii) public and private sector investment and
incentives for vaccine innovation and production, iii) global partnerships to
increase vaccine capacity and improve allocation, and iv) how to maintain or
improve incentives for innovation to protect against future pandemics.
The session will include open discussion and audience Q&A.
Thursday, June 10, 2021
6:00-7:15 p.m. EST
REGISTER
Panelists
Wafaa El-Sadr, MD, MPH, MPA is University Professor of Epidemiology and Medicine,
Director of ICAP at Columbia University, Director of Columbia World Projects and the
Mathilde Krim-amfAR Professor of Global Health at the Columbia Mailman School of Public
Health. Her work through ICAP in more than 30 countries around the world integrates
research, education, training and program design, implementation, scale-up and
evaluation. It aims to address major public health challenges through partnership,
innovation and collaboration. ICAP has longstanding history of work in New York City with
two community research sites in Harlem and the Bronx. The focus on the work has
expanded over the years to include the breadth of health challengesaround the world and
most recently to addressing the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. El-Sadr received her medical degree from Cairo University in Egypt, a masters degree
in public health (Epidemiology) from Columbia Mailman School of Public Health and a
masters degree in public administration from the Harvard University Kennedy School of
Government. She was named a McArthur fellow in 2008, is a member of the National
Academy of Medicine in 2009 and a fellow of the African Academy of Sciences in 2018.
Professor Bhaven Sampat is an Associate Professor at the Department of Health Policy
and Management at Columbia University and a Research Associate at the National Bureau
of Economic Research (NBER). His research focuses on the economics and political
economy of science and technology, primarily in the life sciences. His current projects
examine: (1) The effects of the globalization of drug patent protection on innovation,
prices, and access to medicines; (2) The impact of the World War II research effort on
the rate and direction of postwar science and innovation, and on the scientists involved;
(3) The role of the government in pharmaceutical innovation, and implications for public
policy; and (4) The economics of crisis innovation and crisis innovation policy. His
previous work includes research on the political economy of the the NIH, the economic
impact of public science, patent data as economic indicators, the economics of the patent
system, pharmaceutical and life science patent policy, and university
entrepreneurship/technology transfer.
Dr. Magda Sobieszczyk is the Harold C. Neu Professor of Infectious Diseases (in
Medicine) and Chief, Division of Infectious Diseases at Columbia University Irving Medical
Center in New York.
She is a clinical virologist and the principal investigator of the NIH-funded Columbia
Collaborative Clinical Trials Unit which has been advancing the science of HIV and, most
recently, of emerging infections like COVID-19. She leads and conducts international
studies on the treatment and prevention of these infections. Her work also extends to
evaluating interventions that address healthcare disparities and access to HIV and COVID
care and prevention in the Black and Latino communities. Since the start of the COVID-
19 pandemic, she has established and led studies that further our understanding of
SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence and include evaluation of responses to the vaccine and
assessing viral and immunologic phenotypes that shape the development of post-COVID
sequalae among diverse patients. At the national and local level she has also led efficacy
studies of HIV vaccines, COVID-19 vaccines and novel interventions to prevent and treat
COVID-19 and HIV.
Professor Ashley Swanson (Moderator) is an Assistant Professor at Columbia
University's Business School. An applied microeconomist, Professor Swanson’s research
focuses primarily on the economics of health care. In particular, she studies the effects of
industrial organization and information on choices, costs, and health outcomes. Her
recent work has examined the effect of physician ownership on health care quality and
provider incentives; the effects of lack of transparency and other frictions on negotiations
between hospitals and suppliers; the effects of complex prices and payments from
pharmaceutical firms on prescription drug utilization and prices; and the effects of
insurers’ provider and pharmacy networks on prices.
Professor Stephen P. Zeldes, Frank R. Lautenberg Professor of Economics and Public
Policy at Columbia Business School and co-director of the Richman Center, will introduce
the event.
The event will be recorded and registration is required.
