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GHTC responds to Senator Cardin's RFI on strengthening global health systems through local partnerships post-pandemic

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PATH/Gabe Bienczycki
August 16, 2023

GHTC responded to Senator Ben Cardin's (D-MD) request for information (RFI) on strengthening global health systems through local partnerships post-pandemic by emphasizing the need to invest in innovative product development and the broader innovation ecosystem, as well as strengthening research and manufacturing capacities, especially in low- and middle-income countries.

To the attention of:

Senator Benjamin L. Cardin

COVID-19 cast the importance of a strong, unified, and fully financed global health architecture into sharp relief. However, while the pandemic dominated headlines, progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals and other health priorities has stalled, underscoring the need to reaffirm the importance of investments in ongoing epidemics, including in tuberculosis, malaria, HIV, neglected tropical diseases, and other neglected infectious diseases. To regain our global footing on these diseases, known and unknown, investments by the government in Health Systems Strengthening (HSS) must include catalyzing product development for new drugs, vaccines, diagnostics, vector control products, and other health tools, as well as strengthening research and manufacturing capacities and ensuring more direct investment in existing innovation ecosystems, especially in low- and middle- income countries (LMICs).

According to the same Lancet Commission on Investing in Health paper cited in the RFI, even if our current health technologies were scaled widely, the world could still not achieve our Sustainable Development Goals for health. True HSS must address future supply chain issues and dependence on a handful of stakeholders for vital health products, and global and regional leaders must make a concerted effort to strengthen local production and technical capacities to enhance regional manufacturing capabilities. Investments should be made in regional hubs that can serve multiple countries, especially during major outbreaks, but also for ongoing health threats from poverty-related and neglected diseases.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) is a leader in global health and development, making them uniquely poised to not only conduct HSS but also to invest in the research and development of technologies for global health on a disease-agnostic level. Congress should seek to invest in USAID’s mandate to both bolster the human and infrastructural resources of health systems and vest those systems with the capacity to innovate and build next-generation technologies that are fit for use in LMICs.

Sincerely,

Alex Long

Tags: Advocacy action
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July 11, 2023Chair Cathy McMorris RodgersEnergy & Commerce Committee2125 Rayburn House Office BuildingWashington, DC 20515Representative Brett GuthrieChair, Subcommittee on HealthEnergy & Commerce Committee2434 Rayburn House Office BuildingWashington, DC 20515Representative Richard HudsonMember, Subcommittee on HealthEnergy & Commerce Committee2112 Rayburn House Office BuildingWashington, DC 2051Ranking Member Frank PalloneEnergy & Commerce Committee2125 Rayburn House Office BuildingWashington, DC 20515Representative Anna G. EshooRanking Member, Subcommittee on HealthEnergy & Commerce Committee272 Cannon House Office BuildingWashington, DC 20515Re: The Urgent Need to Reauthorize PAHPADear Chair McMorris Rodgers, Ranking Member Pallone, and Representatives Guthrie,Eshoo, and Hudson,Thank you for all of the careful and important bipartisan work that each of you and yourstaffs have already put into the upcoming reauthorization of the Pandemic and All-HazardsPreparedness Act (PAHPA), set to expire September 30, 2023.Many of the undersigned organizations have had the privilege of testifying before Congressand the Energy and Commerce Committee over the last 17 years—when the original PAHPAwas passed, for its previous reauthorizations, and for the current reauthorization—andhope to continue serving in this trusted capacity. We are writing to express our strongdesire to see PAHPA reauthorized this year in the same bipartisan tradition.Our nation’s changing health security threat landscape and responsibility to protect theAmerican people demand that we work together now to find a strong bipartisan pathforward to reauthorize this critical legislation. Whether the next health security threat isnaturally occurring, the result of an accident, or intentionally caused, our country must bein a better position to prevent, prepare for, and respond to such incidents.We are concerned that if no bipartisan path is reached this year, the opportunity for PAHPAreauthorization will not be resumed until 2024. In that case, forging a bipartisan pathforward will be even more difficult given the expected political landscape of an electionyear. We worry that in such a case, PAHPA reauthorization may not be achieved until 2025.This would have serious effects on our country’s economic, national, and health security.Page 2 of 21Day SoonerAmerica’s Essential HospitalsAmerican Academy of PediatricsAmerican Lung AssociationAmerican Society for MicrobiologyAssociation for Professionals in InfectionControl and EpidemiologyAssociation for the Advancement of Bloodand Biotherapies (AABB)Association of Maternal & Child HealthProgramsAssociation of State and Territorial HealthOfficialsBig Cities Health CoalitionBipartisan Policy CenterCSL SeqirusFederation of American ScientistsFluGen Inc.Georgetown University Center for GlobalHealth Science and SecurityGlobal Health Technologies Coalition(GHTC) Gryphon ScientificHealthcare ReadyHelixInternational Safety Equipment AssociationJohns Hopkins Center for Health SecurityNational Immigration Law CenterNational Rural Health AssociationNew Orleans BioInnovation CenterResolve to Save LivesSanofiSave the ChildrenSecureBio and MIT Sculpting EvolutionGroupSociety for Healthcare Epidemiology ofAmericaThe Gerontological Society of AmericaThe Institute for ProgressTrust for America’s HealthValneva USA