Celebrating partnerships & policymakers
driving global health innovation

About the Innovating for Impact Awards

The Innovating for Impact Awards honor the multisector partnerships and policymakers helping to transform breakthrough scientific research into lifesaving drugs, diagnostics, vaccines, and other health tools for unmet global health challenges.

The initiative annually recognizes one research partnership that has advanced a game-changing global health technology and two US members of congress whose actions have furthered policies and political will to accelerate innovation to tackle the world’s most threatening diseases and health conditions. In 20222, GHTC has added a special Lifetime of Service award to recognize the extraordinary contributions Dr. Anthony Fauci has made to advancing global health innovation throughout his career.

2022 Honoree

Senator Sherrod Brown

Congressional Champion Award

Senator Sherrod Brown is a longtime champion of efforts to combat and eliminate malaria, tuberculosis (TB), and neglected tropical diseases. In 2007, he spearheaded legislation that resulted in the Tropical Disease Priority Review Voucher Program, a key innovative financing mechanism that has incentivized the development of new, lifesaving technologies for more than 25 neglected diseases to date.
Senator Brown has been a particularly persistent force in efforts to address TB. Ringing alarm bells after seeing an increase in TB cases in his home state of Ohio and having witnessed the suffering drug-resistant TB can inflict while traveling, his sustained advocacy helped catalyze President Barack Obama to release the National Action Plan for Combating Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis. Senator Brown has sponsored the Comprehensive TB Elimination Act in multiple Congresses and introduced the Strategies to Address Antibiotic Resistance Act to address the growing threat of antibiotic resistance. Together with Senator Young, Senator Brown led on a letter to the Trump administration in 2018 urging increased support for research and development on TB across multiple government agencies.
Beyond TB, Senator Brown sponsored the 2019 End Neglected Tropical Diseases Act, which was signed into law in 2020 and strengthened support for research and development for neglected tropical diseases at the US Agency for International Development.
That's what public health is all about. It's preventing it in the first place, stopping its spread when it comes and giving people protection in all walks of life.

Senator Sherrod Brown
Congressional Champion Honoree

2022 Honoree

Senator Todd Young

Congressional Champion Award

As a former member of the US Navy and Marine Corps, Senator Todd Young understands that engaging US leadership in health is vital to strengthening defense, diplomacy, and development. He was an outspoken supporter of advancing research and development to address the COVID-19 pandemic and remains a strong voice against various health threats that are key concerns in his home state of Indiana and abroad.
Senator Young has played a key role in advancing policy to address tuberculosis (TB), antimicrobial resistance, and HIV/AIDS, among others. The rise of drug-resistant infections, an insufficient global pipeline of antibiotics, and a need for innovative approaches to develop them prompted Senator Young to action. He co-authored and co-introduced the Pioneering Antimicrobial Subscriptions to End Upsurging Resistance, or PASTEUR, Act, a bipartisan bill to support the development of antimicrobial innovations targeting the most challenging pathogens and infections. Further, Senator Young worked to introduce the bipartisan End TB Now Act, which will support the development of new TB technologies through the US Agency for International Development. Together with Senator Brown, Senator Young led on a letter to the Trump administration in 2018 urging increased support for research and development on TB across multiple government agencies. Additionally, he has championed the need for innovative tools and approaches to accelerate progress toward ending preventable child and maternal deaths through the introduction of the Reach Every Mother and Child Act of 2019 and the reauthorization of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.
Americans understand–now more than ever–that we must take every reasonable and responsible measure to prevent future public health crises. Antimicrobial resistance has become a growing crisis in recent years. Market failures have resulted in a lack of needed research and development in this field which is a threat to public health.

Senator Todd Young
Congressional Champion Honoree

2022 Honoree

Pretomanid (TB Alliance)

Partnership Award

Honoring the TB Alliance, in partnership with Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade; the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership; the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany through KfW; Irish Aid; the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs; The Rockefeller Foundation; the UK Department of Health; the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office; the US Agency for International Development; the UK Research and Innovation Medical Research Council; and the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and with special thanks to all participants in TB Alliance clinical trials.

Tuberculosis (TB) is the world’s deadliest infectious disease, killing 1.6 million people each year. Drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) is a major contributor to the emerging crisis of antimicrobial resistance, with about 450,000 cases each year. Traditionally, treatment for DR-TB has been incredibly lengthy, complex, costly, and toxic. Individuals suffering from DR-TB typically had to take up to 20 or more pills a day—as many as 14,000 total over the course of 18 months or more of treatment. These medications were often accompanied by terrible side effects, such as hearing loss. Still, among those people who were able to access treatment, nearly half went uncured.

TB Alliance, a nonprofit product development partnership that works with a global constellation of funders, research partners, and community stakeholders, developed the novel drug pretomanid, a much-needed advance in DR-TB therapy. Pretomanid has been approved by more than 20 regulatory agencies and procured by more than 40 countries around the world as part of the six-month, all-oral “BPaL” regimen. In trials, BPaL cures 90 percent of patients in a fraction of the time and with fewer toxic side effects than traditional DR-TB therapy—a game changer in the fight against some of the deadliest forms of TB.
BPaL was my only hope because my doctor told me there was no cure for my condition. Then, the final results came in and my doctor said that my lungs had improved. It really was a miracle.

Anna Christina Pelayo
Drug-resistant TB survivor treated with pretomanid and the BPaL regimen

2022 Honoree

Dr. Anthony Fauci

Lifetime of Service Award

Dr. Anthony Fauci has been a standout leader and prominent voice supporting scientific research and innovation to advance global health for many decades. Early in his career, Dr. Fauci performed groundbreaking research in the field of HIV/AIDS, conducting pivotal studies that underpin the current understanding of the disease and were instrumental in the development of treatments that enable people with HIV to live long and active lives.
In 1984, Dr. Fauci was appointed director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the US National Institutes of Health. In this role, Dr. Fauci has been one of the most visible, influential, and effective supporters of global health research and innovation, advising no fewer than seven US presidents and playing a leading role in the United States’ responses to generationally defining health threats from HIV/AIDS to COVID-19. His signature achievements include inspiring and advising President George W. Bush on the creation of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which has helped save millions of lives globally. As director of NIAID, Dr. Fauci oversees an extensive portfolio of basic and applied research to prevent, diagnose, and treat established infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS, respiratory infections, diarrheal diseases, tuberculosis, malaria, and neglected tropical diseases, as well as emerging infectious diseases such as Ebola, swine flu, Zika, and COVID-19.
I believe I have a personal responsibility to make a positive impact on society. I've tried to accomplish this goal by choosing a life of public service. I am a physician and a scientist confronting the challenge of infectious diseases. I consider my job a gift. It allows me to try and help alleviate the suffering of humankind.

Dr. Anthony Fauci
Lifetime of Service Honoree