Willis Towers Watson partners with Metabiota to improve pandemic risk resilience

The Willis Research Network (WRN), a part of re/insurance broker Willis Towers Watson, has partnered with risk analytics firm Metabiota to build greater resilience to pandemic diseases such as COVID-19 through innovative risk transfer tools and solutions.

Metabiota specialises in infectious diseases modelling and helps businesses and countries build resilience to pandemics.

Through the partnership, WTW will leverage Metabiota’s epidemiological data analytics capabilities to improve understanding of pandemic risk, build better pandemic risk models, and support mitigation and risk transfer decision making for increased resilience.

WTW said the partnership will also help the global community across both public and private sectors manage the next pandemic in a more broadly informed and pre-planned way once the current crisis has passed its peak. In the private sector, the partnership will help clients improve their structural resilience to pandemics and navigate human resources, insurance business and investment issues more effectively.

John Haley, CEO of Willis Towers Watson, said: “The research partnership with Metabiota highlights Willis Towers Watson's commitment to developing a full understanding of pandemic risk and providing risk transfer tools to enable communities to build greater resilience to pandemic diseases such as COVID-19. We are focussed on finding innovative ways to apply our risk, capital and people expertise, and with Metabiota we bring a valuable new partner into that mission.”

Simon Young, senior director, climate and resilience Hub at Willis Towers Watson, added: “We are very pleased to welcome Metabiota into the Willis Research Network and look forward to working together through our Climate and Resilience Hub. The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has shone the brightest of lights on the global need for improved understanding of and preparedness for communicable disease risk, and we plan for our work with Metabiota to encompass innovations around risk understanding tools as well as risk management advisory services and risk transfer solutions.”

Nita Madhav, CEO of Metabiota, said: “Epidemics and pandemics are very complex risks in terms of how they spark, evolve and impact societies and economies. We’re delighted to collaborate with colleagues across Willis Towers Watson to better understand and quantify the risk posed by pandemics. This partnership recognises the scientific leadership, knowledge and expertise that Metabiota brings to assessing epidemic and pandemic risk, to ultimately protect lives and livelihoods.”