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About the Poxvirus CORC
Objectives of the CORC
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The Poxvirus CORC aims to facilitate and accelerate community efforts to develop, evaluate and effectively deploy medical countermeasures for mpox and other poxvirus diseases.
We aim to bring together stakeholders from the academic, industry, policy, funding, regulatory and other sectors to promote coordinated and collaborative efforts to advance medical countermeasure development and deployment.
Our goal is to reduce the disease burden associated with mpox by facilitating enhanced prevention of outbreaks and more effective responses based on safe and effective medical countermeasures.
Our work forms part of the CORC initiative overseen by the WHO R&D Blueprint initiative, and we also contribute to the initiatives wider work on outbreak preparedness and response.
What we do
We focus efforts on five pillars:
R&D community of practice
Connecting stakeholders from the academic, industry, policy, funding, regulatory and other sectors.
Knowledge Centre
Providing access to information about ongoing R&D activities and links to other useful tools and resources
R&D community standards and resources
Supporting collaborative development of guidance, standards and other resources to promote coordinated and aligned R&D efforts
Outbreak response [and programmatic implementation]
Supporting R&D Blueprint efforts to ensure the rapid launch of research during outbreaks and the optimal deployment of medical countermeasures
Capacity building
Identifying capacity building needs and promoting collaborations to facilitate clinical studies in high-burden low-resource settings and ensure longer-term access to medical countermeasures
Supporting outbreak response
The CORC is part of the WHO R&D Blueprint initiative, which aims to enhance preparedness and response for outbreaks with pandemic potential.
What the WHO R&D Blueprint initiative does:
What the Poxvirus CORC does:
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Identifies priority pathogens
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Develops synopses of clinical trial designs to guide development of specific core protocols for vaccine and therapeutic evaluation during outbreaks
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Oversees the initiation of trials in outbreaks, in partnership with local authorities
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Selects the interventions to be evaluated in trials during outbreaks
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Promotes integration of research into outbreak responses
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Coordinates the work of CORCs focused on specific pathogen families
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Identifies knowledge gaps relating to specific pathogens and develops R&D Roadmaps
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Facilitates efforts to advance medical countermeasure development for specific pathogens
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Develops clinical trial protocols to be adopted during outbreaks
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Advises the R&D Blueprint initiative on the most appropriate interventions to include in trials
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Provides advice on other research questions that can be addressed as part of research embedded within outbreak responses
CORC leads
The Poxvirus CORC is led jointly by Jean-Jacques Muyembe (INRB, DRC) and Helen Rees (Wits RHI).
Jean-Jacques Muyembe has been at the forefront of efforts to combat outbreaks of mpox and other infectious diseases in the DRC. He is Director of the INRB and leads responses to Ebola outbreaks and other public health emergencies in the DRC.
Helen Rees is founder and Director of Wits RHI at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, one of Africa's largest research institutes. She holds numerous national, regional and international advisory positions, and is a strong advocate for African-led research.
Jean-Jacques Muyembe
Helen Rees
CORC governance and operations
The two CORC leads were appointed by WHO in 2025. In 2026, both the INRB and Wits RHI were given the status of WHO Collaborating Centre in recognition of their role in leading the Poxvirus CORC.
The two CORC leads provide strategic leadership and represent the CORC at the R&D Blueprint level. They are supported by a Senior Leadership Team comprising thematic leads for the CORC's eight thematic areas. Thematic leads are responsible for developing and carrying forward workplans for their respective thematic areas.
The work of the CORC leads and the Senior Leadership Team is supported by a small Secretariat including INRB and Wits RHI staff and external consultants.
A collaborative approach
The CORC is committed to being a collaborative and responsive structure. It engages regularly with the CORC Community – those who have signed up to be informed of the CORC's work.
It also works closely with other stakeholders to avoid duplication of effort, ensure alignment and maximise impact.