Breakthroughs Blog: HIV/AIDS

In this regular feature on Breakthroughs, we highlight some of the most interesting reads in global health research from the past week. Now that members of Congress are back in their Capitol Hill offices after five weeks of recess, lawmakers must decide what to prioritize and what to push off in the few short weeks left in session before members hit the campaign trail for the upcoming November mid-term elections. In the latest post on Breakthroughs, GHTC Senior Policy and Advocacy Associate, Jenny Howell, provides a breakdown of what lawmakers should do to ensure global health research and development gets the support it needs. Federal funding in the United States for biomedical research has declined by more than 20 percent in the last decade. At the same time, more scientists are competing for a smaller pot of money. NPR highlights two stories of researchers forced out of science because they either can’t get research funding or “because the rat race has simply become too unpleasant.” Scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have discovered an HIV antibody that could be effective in fighting the deadly disease. According to the scientists, the antibody—called 35O22—can prevent 62 percent of known HIV strains from infecting cells. The NIH-led scientists also found that the antibody closely resembles antibodies that naturally occur in HIV, which could help in the development of an eventual vaccine. Results from a recent clinical trial could change the approach researchers take on the delivery and development of tuberculosis (TB) drugs in the future. While the REMoxTB trial did not successfully prove TB treatment times could be shortened from six to four months by substituting antibiotic moxiflacin for a currently used drug, it did prove that moxiflacin was safe to use to treat TB on its own. Also, because the trial was one of the largest ever for a new TB regimen, the trial left a stronger research infrastructure to conduct other trials in the future. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has committed $50 million to fight Ebola in West Africa. According to Gates Foundation CEO Susan Desmond-Hellmann, the new money will be available for emergency operations and to help develop drugs, diagnostics, and vaccines to fight the disease. The Gates Foundation’s commitment is the largest sum to ever for one outbreak.

In this post, Eoghan Walsh—communications officer at Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevoelkerung (DSW)—writes about the need for Europe to increase financial and political support for efforts aimed at creating new ways to tackle diseases such as HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria. This post originally appeared on the DSW blog on September 4. Support for global health is at the core of DSW’s advocacy work. One of the four focus areas for the organization is to have global health policies and financing include and support sexual and reproductive health and rights. We recognize at DSW the urgent need to improve the global health situation, and we continue to advocate for health improvements in low- and middle-income countries. As part of this work, we are launching a series of policy briefs on the issue of global health research and development (R&D), outlining why we need to increase financial and political support (in Europe) for efforts aimed at creating new ways to tackle diseases such as HIV and AIDS, TB, and malaria. Download the new infographic on European investment in poverty-related and neglected tropical diseases now!   R&D for PRNDs A crucial element of European investment in global health is support for the development and distribution of innovative new interventions to tackle head-on diseases that affect a huge number of people living in low- and middle-income countries. Poverty-related and neglected tropical diseases (PRNDs), such as HIV and AIDS, TB and malaria—as well as 17 other infectious diseases identified by the World Health Organization (WHO )—affect more than one billion people around the world, causing 6 million deaths annually. 90/10 gap Because these diseases affect people living in some of the world’s poorest countries, for many years there has been insufficient investment in R&D aimed at addressing and eradicating these diseases as the private sector has not seen a market interest in developing new medicines and treatments. It is estimated that, overall, only 10 percent of the world’s resources for health research are directed at diseases that affect the poorest 90 percent of the world’s population. Return on investment for Europe It is because of this “90/10” gap that we work for increased political and financial support to global health R&D, supporting the creation of modern, effective, affordable, and accessible medical interventions to bring an end to the suffering caused by PRNDs. As part of our new series of policy briefs on global health R&D, today we are launching an infographic—developed in collaboration with Policy Cures—outlining the value for the European Union (EU) in investing in global health R&D, and how funding for global health R&D can have positive economic and health benefits for Europe as well as the rest of the world, and have significant return on investment. Read on and support us as we advocate for an end to these terrible diseases! Did you know? PRNDs account for 361 million years of healthy and productive life lost globally There are no vaccines for HIV or malaria The EU invested €2.1 billion in PRNDs research between 2007-2012 Since 2000, 47 new products aimed at PRNDs have been registered, with over 350 more in the pipeline Infographics provided by DSW.

In this regular feature on Breakthroughs, we highlight some of the most interesting reads in global health research from the past week. In a bit of good news, the fiscal year (FY) 2015 defense appropriations bill—which was approved by the Appropriations Committee last Thursday—includes a $7 million increase for peer-reviewed medical research—from $200 million in FY 2014 to $207 million this year—despite a reduction in overall Department of Defense (DoD) funding from FY 2014 levels. In addition, in the accompanying report, the Appropriations Committee included very strong language recognizing DoD’s substantial contributions to global health research and development (R&D) and the need to support sustained US investments in this area. FHI 360 sat down with International Partnership for Microbicides CEO Zeda Rosenberg to discuss last week’s 20th International AIDS Conference. In this short video, Rosenberg highlights the need to focus on key populations—such as young women in sub-Saharan Africa—and the importance of women-initiated products like microbicides as a HIV prevention tool. Nearly 40 years after the discovery of the Ebola virus, no licensed treatments or prevention options are currently available. With the largest outbreak ever of the virus currently underway in West Africa, some are arguing that scientists should begin to develop new drugs and vaccines to combat this deadly disease. According to CNN, it’s likely too late for a vaccine to have enough of a preventative impact now, but using this time to test experimental vaccines—such as one developed by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health—could help when Ebola emerges again in the future. Last week, the United Nation (UN) General Assembly’s Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals released its proposal for a set of goals to succeed the UN Millennium Development Goals which come to an end in 2015. These proposed goals—referred to as the Sustainable Development Goals—will define the post-2015 development agenda. Of the 17 proposed goals put forward by the group, two contain targets related to R&D of new health technologies. Chagas disease—a neglected tropical disease (NTD) transmitted from the kissing bug and affecting millions of people in Latin America—is now on the rise in northern Virginia. Some doctors in the United States are not familiar with the disease and therefore do not test their patients regularly, which poses a risk to the general population in the United States. Many of the 8 million people with Chagas disease around the world never show signs of the disease, but about a third develop heart disease or megacolon and—when untreated—appear to die from sudden heart attacks. Chagas disease is just one example of NTDs affecting more and more people in the United States.

In this regular feature on Breakthroughs, we highlight some of the most interesting reads in global health research from the past week. During the past year, leaders from the US Global Leadership Coalition (USGLC)—an advocacy organization promoting diplomacy and development—have traveled across America seeking out innovators and innovations that best demonstrate how strategic US investments in global development can enhance America’s foreign policy and security interests—an approach USGLC calls “smart power” diplomacy. USGLC’s report—Innovations in Smart Power—featured PATH’s Vaccine Vial Monitor and the Public Health Institute’s Global Health Fellows Program II. Dr. Francis Collins—director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)—announced on the NIH Director’s blog that NIH will, through its various institutes and centers, begin piloting the idea of awarding longer grants that offer more sustained support for investigators in the hopes it will allow them greater freedom to innovate. Currently, most NIH-funded grants are “project-based”—meaning applicants have very clear research aims for what they will accomplish in a defined period of time, typically between 3-5 years. Policy Cures released a report—titled Tuberculosis: The Last Mile—which explains why current treatments to tuberculosis (TB) control aren’t working; provides a snapshot of the major funders in TB research and development (R&D); and outlines what new products are in the TB pipeline, and how these products could change the future for patients with TB. Last month, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded exploratory grants—as part of its Grand Challenges in Global Health program—to three projects aimed on improving the design of the female condom to make it easier to use and more pleasurable. Currently, female condoms represent only a small part of the overall commercial market and are not as widely used as a prevention tool by the global health community. “Female condoms give women a choice to say: ‘Okay, if you don’t want to wear one, I will,’” said Debby Herbenick, one of the grant recipients. GHTC members AVAC and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, as part of the HIV Vaccines & Microbicides Resource Tracking Working Group, released a new report tracking funding for HIV prevention R&D in 2013. The report found funding was down by US$ 50 million—or four percent—when compared to 2012. The 2013 decrease can be attributed largely to diminished US investment in all areas of HIV prevention research, as well as significantly reduced investment in some European countries.