WHO R&D Blueprint
WHO programme setting priority pathogens and coordinating medical countermeasure R&D globally.
Last refreshed: 7 May 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Do the three Q1 2026 WHO roadmaps cover the pathogens most likely to cause the next pandemic?
Timeline for WHO R&D Blueprint
Published Filovirus, Arenaviridae, and Paramyxovirus roadmaps in Q1 2026 with public consultations open through May
Pandemics and Biosecurity: WHO publishes three Q1 pathogen-family roadmaps- What is the WHO R&D Blueprint and which diseases does it cover?
- The WHO R&D Blueprint is a programme launched in 2016 to accelerate vaccine and treatment development for high-risk pathogens including Ebola, Marburg, Lassa, Nipah, MERS-CoV and Disease X.
- What are the three WHO pathogen roadmaps published in early 2026?
- WHO published a Filovirus roadmap on 3 March, an Arenaviridae roadmap on 12 March, and a Paramyxovirus roadmap on 31 March 2026. Public consultations on all three remain open through late May.Source: WHO R&D Blueprint
- What is Disease X on the WHO priority pathogen list?
- Disease X is a deliberate placeholder on the WHO R&D Blueprint priority list for an as-yet-unknown pathogen with pandemic potential, used to prompt investment in flexible platform technologies rather than pathogen-specific vaccines.
Background
The WHO R&D Blueprint is a WHO programme launched in 2016 following the Ebola crisis, designed to accelerate research and development of medical countermeasures (vaccines, diagnostics, therapeutics) for pathogens that pose pandemic or epidemic risk. The Blueprint maintains the official WHO priority pathogen list, which identifies diseases for which no or insufficient medical countermeasures exist and for which investment is urgently needed. Pathogens on the current list include Ebola, Marburg, Lassa, Nipah, Hendra, Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever, Rift Valley fever, MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV, and Disease X (a placeholder for an unknown future pandemic pathogen). The Blueprint coordinates with CEPI, BARDA, Wellcome, and national research funders to sequence R&D investment against these threats.
In Q1 2026 the WHO R&D Blueprint published three pathogen-family medical countermeasure roadmaps: the Filovirus roadmap on 3 March (covering Ebola and Marburg), the Arenaviridae roadmap on 12 March (covering Lassa, Junin and related haemorrhagic fevers), and the Paramyxovirus roadmap on 31 March (covering Nipah, Hendra and measles). Public consultations on all three remain open through late May 2026. The Arenaviridae roadmap is geographically pertinent given Argentina's dual burden: Andes virus in Patagonia and Junin virus (an arenavirus) in the Pampas grain belt, making it one of the world's denser zoonotic-spillover environments. These roadmaps sit alongside CEPI's active H5N1 mRNA trial as the operational layer of Blueprint priority-setting.