What part does private industry play in fighting this epidemic?

You have not specified which epidemic so I will just generalize, the Private industry helps by developing vaccines, prevention measures and treatments or cures for an epidemic that may be going on such as for the Ebola virus epidemic.

Private industries were able to make a stable cultured version of the virus. Centers for disease control and Prevention (CDC) and the main health agency that tracks infectious diseases throughout the world called world health organization played a vital role in dealing with the outbreak. The sample of the disease was sent to Dr. Sussman (Elliot Gould) by two doctors. Sussman worked in a low-security bio lab and he told by the CDC powers that be to refrain from any research. He defies those orders and runs further tests on the samples.