REACTing

REACTing
Name	REACTing
Formation	2011
Type	Research consortium
Headquarters	Paris
Region served	France and international
Leader title	Director
Affiliations	Institut Pasteur, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, Institut de Veille Sanitaire

REACTing is a French research coordination consortium established to organize, prioritize, and accelerate clinical and epidemiological research during infectious disease emergencies. It links institutions, investigators, funding bodies, and public health agencies to mount rapid responses to outbreaks, coordinate trials, and translate findings into policy and practice. The consortium interfaces with academic centers, hospitals, regulatory authorities, and global health organizations to streamline preparedness and response.

Background and Establishment

REACTing was created in the aftermath of crises that highlighted gaps in epidemic research coordination, drawing lessons from responses to events involving Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa, H1N1 influenza pandemic, Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak, and the 2010 Haiti earthquake public health challenges. Its founding involved key French institutions such as Institut Pasteur, Inserm, Agence nationale de sécurité du médicament et des produits de santé, and Agence régionale de santé Île-de-France, and it was shaped by interactions with international actors including World Health Organization, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, and Médecins Sans Frontières. Early governance drew on precedents from International Health Regulations (2005), Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network, and the scientific networks formed during the SARS outbreak and H5N1 influenza research collaborations. The consortium’s establishment reflected policy debates involving the Ministry of Health (France), Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation (France), and French academic hospitals such as Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière and Hôpital Necker-Enfants Malades.

Mission and Objectives

The consortium’s mission centers on accelerating knowledge generation during epidemics by coordinating clinical trials, observational studies, and translational research to inform responses led by bodies like World Health Organization, European Commission, and G7. Objectives include rapid deployment of trial networks similar to those of RECOVERY (clinical trial), harmonization of protocols in line with guidance from International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, development of data-sharing mechanisms akin to Global Health Data Exchange, and support for regulatory pathways used by European Medicines Agency and Food and Drug Administration. The consortium aims to bridge academic research hubs such as Université Paris Cité, Sorbonne Université, and clinical research infrastructures including AP-HP and Assistance Publique–Hôpitaux de Paris to deliver evidence for ministries and agencies.

Organizational Structure and Governance

Governance integrates representation from research institutions like Inserm, CNRS, Institut Pasteur, university hospitals including CHU de Bordeaux and CHU de Lyon, and public health bodies such as Santé publique France and ANSM. The leadership model combines scientific advisory committees with operational units mirroring structures used by European Research Council consortia and emergency response frameworks like Incident Command System. Ethics oversight engages committees comparable to Comité de Protection des Personnes and data governance references frameworks used by Agence nationale de la recherche and European Data Protection Board. Decision-making processes align with protocols seen in task forces convened by G20 health ministers and summit-level scientific councils such as those advising the President of France.

Major Research Programs and Projects

The consortium coordinated rapid-response clinical trials and observational cohorts during outbreaks comparable to programs like Solidarity (WHO trial), ISARIC, and FLU-CAST. Projects included platform trials for therapeutics, vaccine adjuvant studies, seroprevalence surveys referencing methodologies from European Sero-Epidemiology Network, and pathogen genomics efforts akin to work by COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium and Institut Pasteur’s genomic platforms. Research themes encompassed clinical management protocols similar to Surviving Sepsis Campaign, diagnostic validation comparable to assays validated by National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, and modeling collaborations using approaches from Imperial College London and Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Multicenter studies engaged hospitals such as Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Toulouse and research units linked to Université de Lyon.

Collaborations and Partnerships

Collaborative networks included international partners like World Health Organization, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, Wellcome Trust, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Médecins Sans Frontières, and academic centers such as London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Karolinska Institutet. Regional cooperation engaged African CDC, PAHO, and research institutes like Institut Pasteur de Dakar and MRC Unit The Gambia. Industrial partnerships aligned with pharmaceutical companies and biotech firms analogous to collaborations with Sanofi, GSK, and Moderna in platform studies, while ethics and policy dialogues involved European Commission DG SANTE and legal counsel familiar with European Convention on Human Rights considerations for research.

Funding and Resources

Funding sources combined national research grants through agencies like Agence nationale de la recherche, institutional support from Inserm and Institut Pasteur, emergency allocations from the French Government, and international grants from European Commission Horizon 2020 and philanthropic entities including Wellcome Trust and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Resource mobilization paralleled mechanisms used by CEPI for vaccine development and by Horizon Europe for multinational consortia, and leveraged clinical trial infrastructures such as ClinicalTrials.gov registration practices and biobanking standards used at Centre Léon Bérard.

Impact and Contributions to Public Health

The consortium influenced clinical guidance and policy by producing evidence used by World Health Organization and national health authorities, informing therapeutic recommendations akin to findings from RECOVERY (clinical trial) and contributing data to surveillance networks like European Surveillance System. Contributions included accelerating trial initiation in emergency settings, enhancing laboratory capacity similar to expansions at Institut Pasteur, and fostering data-sharing practices comparable to GISAID. Outputs supported vaccine and therapeutic evaluation, strengthened research preparedness for events like Ebola virus epidemic in North Kivu and Ituri, and informed pandemic responses coordinated with entities such as European Commission, WHO R&D Blueprint, and national ministries.

Category:Scientific organisations based in France