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Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC) Outside Witness Testimony for the Record Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Testimony Submission by Jamie Bay Nishi, Executive Director, GHTC I am providing testimony on fiscal year 2024 (FY24) appropriations for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). I am here on behalf of the Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC), a group of 45 nonprofit organizations, universities, and aligned businesses advancing the development of new drugs, vaccines, diagnostics, and other tools for global health and global health security. I am testifying today because we still do not have the technologies that we need to achieve a future where pandemics are prevented, and health is within reach for everyone. In 2019, at least 1.27 million people were killed by antibacterial resistance. In 2021, 1.6 million people were killed by tuberculosis, 1.5 million people were newly diagnosed with HIV, and 247 million people were infected by malaria. Today, more than 1 billion people worldwide are still affected by neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Unfortunately, it is women and children who are often most vulnerable. And as we look towards the future, we cannot afford to sit idle and wait for future pandemic threats with the potential to match or exceed the disruption of COVID-19. To develop the technologies that we need to defeat these diseases and to prevent future pandemics, the US government needs to sustainably increase its investments in global health research programs. Public funding is critical for this sector because companies have little commercial incentive to invest in health areas that impact people in poverty.  As the world’s leader in biomedical research, the United States has both a responsibility and an opportunity: with relatively small public investments, we have the power to save and improve millions of lives. Three agencies that support global health research are NIH, CDC, and BARDA, and we thank the Committee for its past support of these agencies. Still, there is a large hill ahead of us. To continue our progress toward developing lifesaving tools, we respectfully request:  • Increased funding for NIH, including an additional US$21 million for the Fogarty International Center (FIC) to a total of $116.1 million.  • Increased funding for CDC to maintain its capabilities in global health and global health security research, especially for the Global Health Center (GHC) and the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID).   • An additional $775 million in new funding for the Pandemic Preparedness and Biodefense program under the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response for BARDA ($400 million in the President’s Budget Request). In addition to funding, we urge the Committee to request that leaders in the Department of Health and Human Services coordinate across the department’s agencies and with the State Department to ensure that US investments in global health research are efficient, coordinated, and streamlined. NIH is a global leader in biomedical research. Within NIH, Fogarty accelerates science through international partnerships, technical assistance, and researcher trainings. The agency delivers significant scientific results and foreign goodwill with less than one-quarter of one percent of the total NIH budget. Many FIC-trained scientists have led their countries’ responses to COVID-19, Zika, and Ebola, as well as to long-standing challenges such as HIV/AIDS.  Fogarty is positioned to expand its role in pandemic preparedness and global health research capacity-building. With additional funding, the center could improve global disease surveillance, coordination, and training of scientists in fields that strengthen pandemic preparedness, such as disease transmission modeling. We urge appropriators to increase FIC’s relatively modest budget by $21 million in FY24. Also within NIH, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is the single largest funder of research on neglected and emerging infectious diseases in the world. As it undergoes a historic leadership change, we urge Congress to include report language that emphasizes the importance of the institute’s support for global health research. CDC tracks the spread of diseases and supports the development of new global health technologies, including diagnostics and vaccines. This research happens across several centers including GHC and NCEZID. CDC has just appointed a new deputy director for global health who will connect and oversee global health programs across the agency.  CDC’s GHC leads CDC’s global health security efforts; provides technical support to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the President’s Malaria Initiative, and the US Agency for International Development’s NTDs Program; and develops and validates tools such as insecticides to prevent malaria. GHC also hosts a gold-standard parasitic diseases laboratory that serves as a reference for scientists around the world. GHC needs additional funding to maintain and expand its laboratory services, expand its public health workforce, and improve its global health security efforts.Also at CDC, NCEZID develops diagnostics for global health threats and is an international reference hub for identifying and tracking known and unknown viral and bacterial diseases. The center has a leading role in the National Strategy for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria to prevent, detect, and control outbreaks of antibiotic-resistant pathogens.  BARDA sponsors the late-stage development of vaccines, drugs, diagnostics, and other medical devices for naturally occurring biothreats that lack a commercial market—including emerging infectious diseases, pandemic influenza, and antimicrobial resistance. To date, however, BARDA’s work in advancing tools for emerging infectious diseases has mostly been funded through emergency supplemental appropriations. This pattern produces a delayed response with every new outbreak of emerging or reemerging diseases like Ebola, Zika, and COVID-19. We urge Congress to break this cycle by creating a new, dedicated funding line of at least $775 million to support BARDA’s efforts against emerging infectious diseases. Such funding will enable the agency to prepare for—rather than react to—future pandemic threats. Global health research and development is unique as a foreign policy goal in that it also supports researchers in the United States. From 2007 to 2020, more than $18 billion in federal funding went to US-based institutions for research on neglected diseases, supporting estimated hundreds of thousands of jobs and generating billions more in economic growth. In addition, many of the tools and technologies developed from this funding benefit people living in the United States either directly or indirectly by strengthening national health security and global prosperity.   As we emerge from a global pandemic subdued by publicly supported science, it is clearer than ever what we can achieve with sustained funding and attention. With increased public funding for global health research, we can achieve a world that is healthier and safer for everyone.

GHTC's recommendations to the US government to improve the zero draft of the intergovernmental negotiating body (INB) on the pandemic treaty submitted at a public hearing on the INB process held by the US Department of Health and Human Services.The Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC) is a coalition of more than 45 nonprofit organizations, academic institutions, and aligned businesses advancing policies to accelerate the creation of new drugs, vaccines, diagnostics, and other tools that bring healthy lives within reach for all people.GHTC welcomes the efforts by both the World Health Organization (WHO) and member states in recent months to arrive at the current draft of considerations for the intergovernmental negotiating body (INB) pandemic treaty, known as WHO CA+, which we believe is a strong starting point for negotiations. We appreciate the US government, particularly leadership from the Departments of Health & Human Services and State, for providing this consultative opportunity and highlight that our focus remains the innovation of and equitable access to health tools, thereby strengthening the world’s capacities for preventing, preparing for, responding to, and recovering from pandemics.Our comments build on previous comments GHTC made as part of the open consultations and public hearings, and in this submission, we seek to highlight issues within the zero draft for the US government that are either missing or could be further clarified or amended.Recommendations for Objectives and Vision1. Addressing inequities in access to health tools should be a central objective.There is currently no reference to ensuring equitable access to affordable health tools as part of the objective or vision. Addressing inequities in access to health tools should be a central objective of the WHO CA+. COVID-19 clearly showed that equitable access is the “unfinished business” of global health and is imperative to “save lives,” as the WHO CA+ aim states. Suggested amendment: Article 3 objective(s) should be amended ‘[ADD Ensuring the discovery, development, availability, and timely and equitable access to affordable medical and other pandemic response products].’Recommendations for Article 7: Access to technology: Promoting sustainable and equitably distributed production and transfer of technology and know-how2. Incentivize research for medical countermeasures (MCMs) for outbreaks in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).We note that this article does not cover incentivizing continuous research to develop MCMs for diseases that cause outbreaks primarily in lower- and middle-income countries but are not profitable for manufacturers to produce, such as those for cholera, Ebola/Marburg fever, and other neglected tropical diseases. Continuous research can accelerate the development of MCMs for novel pathogens, as was the case when research on an mRNA vaccine for HIV contributed to speeding up the development of the COVID-19 vaccine. A provision should be added for incentivizing such research.3. Ensure accountability of equity principles for MCMs. Article 7 outlines important principles of an effective and equitable system for developing the research base needed to accelerate the production of pandemic countermeasures; however, the zero draft does not currently include provisions for accountability of these principles. GHTC would also appreciate more clarity on whether the newly proposed MCMs platform could eventually fit into this space.Recommendations for Article 8: Regulatory strengthening 4. Elevate the need for regional regulatory coordination and capacity.A stronger emphasis on building the capacity of regional regulatory bodies, like the newly formed African Medicines Agency, is important. Investing in the regulatory capacity, and not just harmonization, of these regional bodies, will help fill gaps for LMICs that are lacking national capacity.5. Highlight national and regional regulatory policies and protocols for health emergencies.Building on the language in sub-article 1 and 2, there is a need to include text that establishes national and regional policies or protocols for the regulation of products during health emergencies. Currently, the draft only highlights general regulatory harmonization and focuses on licensing of pandemic products, without taking into account broader elements of the regulatory ecosystem.Recommendations for Article 9: Increasing research and development capacities6. The title of Article 9 should be expanded.In addition to strengthening capacity, there is a need to address the limitations and gaps in the way that research and development (R&D) is conducted and coordinated that have been exposed during COVID-19.To better reflect the need to focus on both aspects, and what is already included under Article 9 in the zero draft, the title of Article 9 should be amended to read: ‘Increase [ADD and enhance/coordinate] research and development [ADD processes] and capacities.’Recommendations for Article 9.10: Clinical research ecosystems 7. Ensure measures to support regional clinical research ecosystems for preparedness and response by supporting new and existing clinical trial networks and infrastructure, especially those based in and led by LMICs.We support the reference to developing strong and resilient national, regional, and international clinical research ecosystems and would encourage the scope to include not only pandemic responses but also other existing health priorities to ensure sustainability. Just as the response to COVID-19 depended on years of investment in clinical trial networks for other health threats, moving forward, it will be important to establish clinical trial infrastructure and platforms that can be flexible, autonomous, and able to respond promptly and effectively to emerging outbreaks—and in non-pandemic times, be capable of supporting efforts to tackle ongoing health priorities, including malaria, tuberculosis, HIV, neglected tropical diseases, and the rising threat of antimicrobial resistance. Additionally, while efforts must be made to support existing infrastructure, it may be necessary to create new mechanisms.Amend 9.10 (a) to read: Fostering and coordinating clinical research and clinical trials, including, as appropriate though [ADD new and] existing coordination mechanisms [ADD especially those based in and led by low- and middle-income countries].8. Ensure that measures to strengthen clinical research ecosystems include a broad diversity of populations (Article 9). Support for inclusive clinical trials is needed to improve equity and understanding of health outcomes within specific populations. There should be an explicit reference to the inclusion of underserved populations in all their diversity, including children and people who are pregnant or of child-bearing age. Disaggregating clinical trial result data is another important aspect and should remain as Article 9 10 (d).9. Include measures to support regulatory authorities and ethics committees for clinical trial processes and oversight (Article 9).Support for coordination and cooperation mechanisms for regulatory authorities and ethics committees is important to expedite and streamline clinical trial approval and review processes.Add a new point to 9. 10 [ADD (e) supporting the coordination and cooperation of regional and national regulatory authorities and ethics committee for clinical trial approval processes and oversight].10. Obligations for the transparent and rapid reporting of clinical research and trial results should be strengthened (Article 9).Transparency and timely publication of clinical trial protocols and results is critical for the harmonization of protocols/comparisons and coordination of treatment guidelines. Transparency can be enhanced through requirements to include this information in publicly available registers, such as the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform, ClinicalTrials.gov, and the Pan African Clinical Trials Registry.

The Biden administration’s fiscal year 2024 (FY24) budget request is a mixed bag for global health research. The request includes a few bright spots, especially for global health security, but overall fails to address the significant gaps and recent setbacks for global health.For the State Department and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the request includes increases to global health security—including to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations—but otherwise proposes cuts to bilateral HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria programs.These proposed cuts to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, and tuberculosis and malaria programs at USAID are especially disappointing at a time when these programs face lingering setbacks from COVID-19.GHTC was especially disappointed that the request did not include additive funding under USAID for a new global health research and development line, a proposal supported by more than 100 global health organizations and former senior USAID officials.In the Department of Health and Human Services, GHTC was disappointed that the budget proposes flat funding to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Fogarty International Center.The Fogarty International Center trains infectious disease researchers, invests in health systems, and improves pandemic preparedness around the world. It is a best buy for global health.GHTC applauds the proposed increases to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases and Global Health Center, including to Global Public Health Protection and the Division for Parasitic Diseases and Malaria.These centers track infectious diseases globally, support the development of new technologies, and provide technical expertise to many partners in the United States and globally.In addition to an increase for the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), GHTC applauds the Biden administration for including a longstanding priority for our community: proposing a new line of funding at US$400 million for emerging infectious diseases (titled Pandemic Preparedness and Biodefense) under the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response.Nearly all BARDA’s support for emerging infectious disease (EID) medical countermeasures to date has been funded through emergency supplemental appropriations. This new line will enable the agency to be proactive, rather than reactive, to future pandemic threats.Beyond EIDs, however, GHTC is disappointed that the request deprioritizes antimicrobial resistance research, proposing $155 million in support for the Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator, or CARB-X, and the advanced development of new antimicrobial therapeutics at BARDA—$30 million less than for fiscal year 2023, despite a topline increase.GHTC urges Congress to build upon the Biden administration’s request and to pass a spending package for FY24 that recognizes how far we are from achieving our goals for global health research and development. Achieving these research milestones is critical for achieving our national and global health objectives.