News: Announcement

Even as Congress grapples with the White House on how to fund an emergency response to fight Zika virus, a new report warns that overall underfunding for development of lifesaving tools against neglected global diseases is putting the United States and the world at risk, and that emergency funding can’t be allowed to substitute for sustained US investment in research and development (R&D) of global health technologies. “Current levels of US global health R&D financing do not match the scale of health challenges the world faces,” said Erin Will Morton, director of the Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC)—27 nonprofit groups focused on accelerating the creation of new drugs, vaccines, diagnostics, and other health tools. “Political inaction in Washington could undermine two decades of landmark gains in global health and leave the world unprepared and unprotected against emerging health problems like Zika virus infection or antimicrobial resistance.” The GHTC report, Achieving a bold vision for global health: Policy solutions to advance global health R&D, was released today at a Capitol Hill briefing. In it, GHTC urges Congress and the Administration to recognize the United States’ crucial role in accelerating R&D that both saves lives around the world and protects the health of Americans at home. The report urges Congress to provide robust and sustained public financing for US agencies engaged in global health R&D, from the US Department of State and Department of Defense to the US Agency for International Development, National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control, and Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It also calls for those agencies to then set a percentage of program budgets to be directed to global health R&D and for greater cross-agency coordination to accelerate health product development. “The Ebola and Zika virus outbreaks have exposed the perils of waiting for an emergency to trigger investment in R&D for neglected diseases. Sustained, predictable funding is not only more cost-effective, it’s a down payment to save lives from the diseases we’ll face tomorrow,” said Morton. A recent study that examined the risk of infectious disease outbreaks projected that large-scale global disease pandemics could cost the global economy more than US$60 billion a year, while investing in the interventions needed to protect against these outbreaks, including R&D, would cost only a fraction of that—$4.5 billion—each year. The GHTC report documents how past US support has led to breakthrough health solutions, like the first blood test for HIV/AIDS, a vaccine to prevent meningitis A in Africa, and new diagnostic tests to target drug resistant tuberculosis (TB), which have contributed significantly to major milestones in global health—since 1990, there has been a 53 percent drop in childhood deaths and a 45 percent decrease in maternal deaths. US investment have also helped nurture a growing global pipeline which contains nearly 500 promising tools under development for neglected global diseases, including: For malaria, new drug candidates in the pipeline; second-generation vaccines, and a new class of insecticides; For TB, shorter treatments for drug-resistant strains, easier-to-use, more rapid diagnostic tests, and efforts underway to develop a new vaccine; For Ebola, new vaccine and drug candidates moving through clinical trials; For drug-resistant superbugs, an entire new class of antibiotics; For HIV/AIDS, a new microbicide ring that has advanced through clinical trials and new hopes for a vaccine; and For neglected tropical diseases such as sleeping sickness, visceral leishmaniasis and Chagas disease, new drug cures and vaccines. GHTC credits much of this progress to the catalyzing effect from the near-doubling of US funding for global health R&D between 2000 and 2010. Since peaking in 2009, however, funding has been largely stagnant or declining. With Ebola emergency funding removed, US investments in neglected disease R&D in 2014 actually fell 2 percent from the year before and fell nearly 13 percent, or $221 million, from the 2009 peak. Despite uncertain year-over-year funding from the United States, the report says, developers around the world have contributed to a global health R&D pipeline today with nearly 500 products, up from 365 in 2012. The United States is the lead funder of this R&D, contributing around 70 percent of public investment and 45 percent of all global investment, including private and philanthropic funding. More specifically, the United States is the lead funder of R&D for 26 of the 30 most neglected diseases. “It is critical not to pull back US investments now and put this arc of progress at risk,” said Morton. “As promising global health products move from laboratory testing through clinical trials, costs escalate. So with great promise and success also comes a more pronounced need for funding to see these products to the finish line.” The GHTC report offers an example of cuts in US funding for Ebola R&D in 2012 that permanently stalled development of a promising vaccine, leaving the world empty-handed when an epidemic flared in West Africa. Policymakers could once again stall Ebola R&D if they redirect emergency funds allocated for Ebola R&D to fight Zika before we’ve completed development of Ebola diagnostics, vaccines, and other tools to curb future outbreaks. “We're missing a generation of biomedical interventions against neglected and emerging infections, and it's becoming increasingly clear that to solve this problem we'll need new partnerships and new strategic plans,” said Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, and a US Science Envoy. “The partnerships must include industry, developing country manufacturers, and nonprofit product development partnerships, with increasing financial and strategic support from the G20 nations, including the US government.” Recognizing that many of the diseases in question are ones of poverty, the GHTC report not only calls for robust public investment in global health R&D, but also suggests adoption of policies to incentivize the private sector to act in the absence of viable commercial markets. For example, prizes, small business innovation awards, priority review vouchers, advance market commitments, and tax credits could help leverage US investments. New financing mechanisms like social impact bonds or pooled funds could attract diverse and non-traditional funding partners. Investing in strengthening the R&D sector of fast-developing countries so they can address their own health challenges could also lessen US share of funding over time. Right now, however, the GHTC report insists the US cannot fall behind on its investments. Working together to get to the finish line faster Beyond funding, the report’s second goal is to direct greater cooperation and coordination across US agencies, which could close gaps and accelerate development of drugs, vaccines, diagnostics, and other tools. To achieve such coordination, the report recommends that Congress establish a whole-of-government R&D strategy, which could include a designated coordinator appointed to oversee it. It also calls for existing cross-government global health initiatives like the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) to adopt R&D as a core goal in dealing with future health crises. The third and final US goal recommended by the report is to deploy US expertise and resources to strengthen regulatory pathways to help get global health products into the hands of the people who need them more quickly. Regulatory capacity is often weak in the countries where new drugs, vaccines, and devices are meant to be deployed. The report recommends that Congress direct the FDA to establish a mechanism to offer a formal scientific opinion on medical products intended for markets outside the US, which would give authorities in countries lacking resources the trusted scientific guidance needed to make regulatory decisions. It also calls for greater support for programs to strengthen regulatory capacity in low- and middle-income countries and harmonize regulatory requirements. “When the US government and R&D sector strategically unleash their ingenuity and resources, there is no global health goal out of our reach,” said the GHTC’s Morton.

The Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC) is excited to announce that Global Health Council (GHC) has joined the coalition. GHC is the leading membership organization supporting and connecting advocates, implementers, and stakeholders around global health priorities worldwide. “At Global Health Council, we seek to be the collaborative voice of the global health community and engage with key decision-makers to improve health globally through increased investment and policies,” said Dr. Christine Sow, president and executive director of GHC. “We recognize that research and development for new health technologies is an important part of the equation for delivering improved health worldwide and look forward to collaborating with GHTC and its members to drive forward policy solutions and investments that help catalyze the development of urgently needed health technologies.” Founded in 1972 as the National Council of International Health, the Council sought to bring together global health practitioners, researchers, and organizations to collaborate and share information with the collective goal of improving health worldwide. In 1998, the organization changed its name to Global Health Council to better reflect the scope of its work and global membership. Today GHC is comprised of over 70 member organizations—including nongovernmental organizations, foundations, corporations, faith-based organizations, and academic institutions—operating in more than 150 countries, and hundreds of individual members. GHC regularly convenes stakeholders around key global health issues and actively engages key decision-makers to influence health policy. “GHC has a long and distinguished history of bringing together diverse actors in the global health community to debate and collaborate around shared priorities and concerns in global health and is respected by policymakers for its leadership in the community,” said Erin Will Morton, GHTC’s coalition director. “We look forward to forging deeper relationships among both of our memberships as we work to advance the diverse set of solutions required to improve health worldwide.” For more information about Global Health Council, visit www.globalhealth.org.

The Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC) is pleased to announce that the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) has joined the coalition’s membership. IVI is an independent nonprofit international organization headquartered in Seoul, South Korea that conducts research to discover, develop and deliver safe, effective, and affordable vaccines for global public health. “IVI was founded on the belief that the health of children in developing countries can be dramatically improved by the use of new and improved vaccines,” said Jerome Kim, IVI’s Director General. “Since our founding, we’ve collaborated with the scientific community, nonprofits, governments, and industry to facilitate the development and introduction of vaccines in countries where they are most needed. We are excited to join GHTC and look forward to working with the coalition to educate policymakers about the critical importance of vaccine R&D in tackling the leading causes of disease and disability in developing countries.” IVI was established in 1997 as an initiative by the United Nations Development Programme under the recognition that there was a need for an international organization with the mandate to improve the health of children in developing nations through vaccines and vaccination. IVI operates today under an international treaty signed by 35 countries and the World Health Organization (WHO). IVI is involved in all areas of the vaccine spectrum from vaccine discovery in the laboratory to vaccine development and evaluation in the field to facilitating sustainable vaccine introduction. The institute conducts lab research from its Seoul headquarters, as well as clinical and field research in more than 20 countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Among its achievements, IVI led an international product development partnership for the inactivated oral cholera vaccine. The vaccine was prequalified by WHO in 2011, making IVI one of two nonprofit organizations that successfully brought a vaccine to WHO prequalification. “GHTC is excited to welcome the International Vaccine Institute to our membership,” said Erin Will Morton, GHTC’s Coalition Director. “Since its founding nearly two decades ago, IVI has established itself as a leading actor in vaccine research and development. We look forward to partnering with the institute to promote policies and investments that accelerate the development and introduction of lifesaving vaccines in low-income countries.” For more information about the International Vaccine Institute, visit www.ivi.int.