Munich Re and re/insurance broker Marsh have collaborated on a new pandemic risk insurance solution in conjunction with health analytics firm Metabiota, which aims to protect U.S-based businesses from outbreaks of infectious disease.
The new solution, called PathogenRX, will use triggers like Metabiota’s new Pathogen Sentiment Index to help businesses more effectively model their financial losses and protect against the threat of disease outbreak through an insurance policy underwritten by Munich Re.
The PathogenRX solution will also be customisable in terms of specific expenses, geographies, types of disease, or portions of a calendar year.
Gunther Kraut, Head of Epidemic Risk Solutions at Munich Re, said: “With PathogenRX, we are pushing the boundaries of insurability. Businesses now can better prepare for the potential of an epidemic or pandemic with a highly customizable risk modelling and transfer solution.
“This joint effort is an important part in our continued strategic push for innovation. It will pave a new frontier for the insurance industry by helping businesses become more resolute to the evolving health threats facing the world.”
Many industries that depend on people moving freely have suffered severe financial losses over the last several decades due to outbreaks of diseases like Zika, MERS, and SARS.
However, up until now, businesses have had no way to measure the potential economic loss from a pandemic or epidemic and effectively protect their bottom line.
“Pandemics and epidemics are not your average risk,” explained Martin South, President of Marsh’s U.S and Canada Division. “They may occur over several months, are often not confined to a specific region, and their unpredictability means they can scale, grow, and become quite costly to a range of businesses from hotels and restaurants to schools and airlines.”
Bill Rossi, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Metabiota, also commented: “Metabiota’s mission is to make the world more resilient to epidemics and to accomplish this means working with insurance industry leaders, like Marsh and Munich Re, to develop new offerings to minimize the economic repercussions that can result from infectious diseases.”
“Our Pathogen Sentiment Index combines our team’s in-depth scientific knowledge with a novel way to measure the potential impact to consumer travel and spending as a result of an outbreak and trigger the necessary resources to offset it.”
Metabiota’s team of global scientific experts deliver actionable, data-driven analytics to both countries and corporations to help them build resilience to epidemics and protect global public health via risk transfer solutions.
