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Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email. World leaders convened virtually Thursday for a second Global COVID-19 Summit to accelerate collective efforts in the global pandemic response, pledging about $3.1 billion in new 2022 funding along with commitments to bolster availability of COVID-19 tools. The funding commitments, though falling short of the goal of $10 billion for vaccinations and $3 billion for therapeutics and oxygen, included more than $2 billion in funding for the immediate COVID-19 response and $962 million for a new pandemic preparedness and global health security fund to be established at the World Bank. The United States, which cohosted the summit alongside Belize, Germany, Indonesia, and Senegal, also announced a new National Institutes of Health licensing agreement to share technologies with the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Technology Access Pool and the Medicines Patent Pool to support the development of therapeutics, early-stage vaccines, and diagnostic tools.The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) will provide up to $19.3 million to support development of a “variant-proof” COVID-19 vaccine by an international consortium consisting of Bharat Biotech, the University of Sydney, and ExcellGene SA. The funding will support preclinical and clinical proof of concept for an adjuvanted subunit vaccine candidate—including immunogen design, preclinical studies, manufacturing process development, and a phase 1 clinical trial—with the goal of providing broad protection against all known SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern as well as future variants of the virus. The project could contribute to long-term control of COVID-19, according to CEPI, and the partnership has committed to achieving equitable access to any outputs of the project.A World Trade Organization (WTO) proposal to temporarily waive patent protections on COVID-19 vaccines is receiving tepid reactions from members ahead of a long-delayed ministerial conference set for June. The current compromise proposal would ease some existing barriers to issuing compulsory licenses for patents on COVID-19 vaccines, but also introduces new impediments, including a condition requiring countries to list each patent they intend to waive. The deal is a result of discussions between the European Union, United States, South Africa, and India, following the original proposal by South Africa and India presented in 2020, which sought to not only waive intellectual property protections on patents, but also trade secrets, copyrights, and industrial designs, for treatments, tests, and vaccines. WTO member states expressed mixed views at a recent meeting of the Council on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property, or TRIPS, ultimately leaving the fate of the proposal uncertain.

GHTC delivered the following statement, on the 75th World Health Assembly (WHA) agenda item 14.3 Global strategy for tuberculosis research and innovation, on May 13, 2022 at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) WHA stakeholder listening session:Thank you for the opportunity to provide feedback on the global strategy for tuberculosis research and innovation. To reverse the impact of the pandemic, avert preventable deaths, and put the world on track to end tuberculosis (TB), essential TB services must be restored as a matter of urgency, and more domestic and international resources need to be mobilized. It is also critical that the development and uptake of new technologies is part of that investment. The Treatment Action Group reported TB research and development investment of US$915 million in 2020, far below the 2018 UN high-level meeting target of at least US$2 billion per year. Annual funding for TB research needs to more than double to reach the global target.Therefore, GHTC calls on the United States to:Support research capacity globally to expand the pipeline of new and equitably accessible TB tools, especially true point-of-care molecular diagnostics, new antibiotic regimens, and vaccines.Address the unmet needs in translational research for TB. The pandemic has demonstrated that rapid sharing of data helps accelerate research and discovery. Some countries have already made strides by using common protocols coordinated through the Regional Prospective Observational Research for Tuberculosis (RePORT) network and contributed data and biospecimens to the platform. The United States should continue to push for additional coordination and collaboration through these platforms.Address the drug-resistant TB crisis and close persistent gaps in diagnosis and treatment access and care. The United States should work with the World Health Organization and member states to ensure that the process for including new technologies to fight drug resistant TB on the essential medicines and diagnostics lists and other guidelines is streamlined. 

GHTC delivered the following statement, on the 75th World Health Assembly (WHA) agenda item 14.5 Immunization Agenda 2030, on May 13, 2022 at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) WHA stakeholder listening session:Thank you once again for the opportunity to provide feedback on this important agenda item. Many recent scientific and multilateral agency reports and publications suggest that overall, immunization took a step backward in the past two years. Despite the tireless efforts of countless immunization program staff and health workers to ensure the availability of vaccination services, vaccination coverage globally fell for the first time in a decade. The COVID-19 pandemic has overwhelmed immunization infrastructure and workforce, impacted the global supply chain, increased the incidence of antimicrobial resistance, and derailed gains made in immunization campaigns around the world. Therefore, GHTC calls on the United States to:    Focus on the full spectrum of innovations that support immunization programs. The near term will inevitably be dominated by a continuing focus on COVID-19 vaccine rollouts. Nevertheless, it is vital that these activities are also leveraged to strengthen vaccine manufacturing capacities to address a broader range of health areas. This also includes storage, administration, and coadministration with other health interventions as well as novel service delivery, including focused “test & vaccinate” strategies as recently recommended by the Gavi board.  Support the development of formal feedback loops to monitor follow up and implementation of recommendations made by the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization and other regional immunization technical advisory groups.  Accelerate and expand the COVAX facility research and development agenda to advance next-generation COVID-19 vaccines, including “variant-proof” COVID-19 vaccines and shots that could provide wide protection against coronaviruses, vaccines with optimized dosing, and vaccines more suitable for delivery in low-resource settings. World leaders must also do everything in their power to correct the shameful lack of equitable access to these lifesaving tools.  

GHTC delivered the following statement, on the 75th World Health Assembly (WHA) agenda item 14.4 Road map for neglected tropical diseases 2021–2030, on May 13, 2022 at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) WHA stakeholder listening session:Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are inextricably linked to poverty and inequality. These diseases exact a heavy toll, causing chronic illness, severe disfigurement, blindness, and death. More than 1.5 billion people are estimated to require interventions against NTDs each year with many existing tools inadequate to effectively screen and treat populations in low-income and low-resource settings. Increased attention in recent years has brought new resources to the fight against NTDs and fueled research breakthroughs. Yet, very significant gaps remain in the arsenal of tools needed to control and eliminate these diseases, underscoring the need for research and development (R&D) of new tools.Therefore, GHTC calls on the United States to:  Address the current diagnostic gaps for NTDs. The Diagnostic Technical Advisory Group for Neglected Tropical Diseases recently published several target product profiles, and more guidance from the World Health Organization (WHO) will be necessary to spur the development of new diagnostic tools. We urge the United States to work with WHO and member states to explore regulatory and manufacturing pathways to facilitate prequalification and regulatory approval of in-vitro diagnostics.We call on the United States to fill key gaps by investing in R&D for new and improved treatments and prevention tools across the scope of NTDs, including therapies designed for children and shorter, simplified regimens with fewer side effects.