Executive summary
The United States is well-positioned to make significant gains in research and development for diseases and conditions that continue to impose a large burden of death and disability on millions of people each year. Since the release of the first annual policy report from the Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC), the administration has expressed a strong commitment to science, technology, and innovation through new international health and development strategies. The US Congress passed legislation that allows federal agencies to award prizes to stimulate innovation. And by advancing several key regulatory initiatives, members of Congress positioned the US Food and Drug Administration to assume stronger authority over the regulation of global health products. Several US agencies developed new partnerships—with the private sector, nonprofit organizations, civil society, academia, and other US agencies—to leverage the expertise and resources needed to accelerate global health research and product development.
Despite these achievements, too many people around the world still suffer or die from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, neglected tropical diseases, diarrheal diseases, and pneumonia. Too many women still succumb to problems related to childbirth. Yet we are closer than ever to developing new vaccines, diagnostics, drugs, and other tools that could prevent these unnecessary deaths, most of which occur in developing countries. The US Government is a key partner in accelerating access to new health tools, and now is the time to act.
This second annual policy report from the GHTC—a group of almost 40 nonprofit organizations working to increase awareness of the urgent need for vaccines, diagnostics, drugs, microbicides, and other products that save lives in the developing world—outlines some of the action steps that will help curb unnecessary deaths, extend lives, and secure healthier futures. Serving as a guide for policymakers, the report documents promising policy actions taken over the past year in the areas of US investments in global health and international development, regulatory pathways to ensure the safety and efficacy of health tools, and incentives and innovative financing mechanisms to spur global health product development. This report offers recommendations for how US policymakers can continue to have a lead in improving health worldwide.