THE Group of Seven (G7) leaders are set to sign the Carbis Bay Declaration to using all their resources to prevent another global health emergency, similar to the COVID-19 pandemic when they meet in Cornwall on Saturday.

The heads of the seven leading global economies and democracies – Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US – are in the UK for the G7 summit where they are expected to agree to the declaration.

By signing the declaration on health, G7 leaders will commit to using all their resources to prevent a global pandemic from ever happening again.

"To truly defeat coronavirus and recover we need to prevent a pandemic like this from ever happening again. That means learning lessons from the last 18 months and doing it differently next time around," said British Prime Minister Mr Boris Johnson.

The leaders will be joined in their discussions by their counterparts from South Korea, South Africa, Australia and India, and the Secretary General of the UN alongside other international organisations.

The Carbis Bay declaration will incorporate recommendations of leading international researchers to prevent future pandemics by taking measures such as slashing the time taken to develop and licence vaccines, treatments and diagnostics for any future disease to under 100 days.

Reinforcing the global surveillance networks and genomic sequencing capacity and support for reforming and strengthening the World Health Organisation (WHO) are some of the other recommendations.

To stop new animal-borne diseases before they put people at risk, the UK will establish a UK Animal Vaccine Manufacturing and Innovation Centre at The Pirbright Institute in Surrey. They will rapidly assess promising new technologies in the field, and develop and test novel vaccines for emerging diseases.

The UK has contributed GBP 10 million of funding for centre, with The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation providing another GBP 14.5 million.

The G7 is uniquely well-placed to lead global efforts in pandemic prevention – the group is home to two-thirds of the world’s pharmaceutical market.