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The Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC) applauds the inclusion of emergency funding to support the international response to COVID-19 in the revised Heroes Act released yesterday. As the death toll of this pandemic crosses a grim threshold of 1 million lives lost worldwide, global solidarity and cooperation to defeat COVID-19 are essential. However, GHTC notes that additional pressing needs remain unaddressed by the proposal, including the need for dedicated funding for the US Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Global Health Bureau to support the development and deployment of COVID-19 products designed for use in low-resource health systems—a prerequisite to ending this pandemic globally and keeping Americans safe.The proposed bill includes critical global health investments, including support for global disease detection and emergency response activities led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a multilateral vaccine development partnership as well as vaccine production and distribution in lower-income countries led by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; and efforts to help low- and middle-income countries bolster health systems and respond to the outbreak via the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, the USAID Emergency Reserve Fund; and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). GHTC applauds the inclusion of these life-saving resources in the revised House Heroes Act and urges the swift consideration and advancement of these proposals by Congress.GHTC also encourages congressional champions to support additional investment opportunities to resource USAID’s Global Health Bureau to advance COVID-19 technologies. Innovation is at the heart of the global exit strategy from COVID-19, and we will need to develop and adapt health products for low-resource settings to defeat the pandemic. Products well suited for delivery in very low-resource settings—where health systems are weak and where COVID-19 has the greatest potential to evade containment and cause tremendous suffering—are urgently required. This includes tests, treatments, vaccines, medical devices, health facility innovations, and personal protective equipment for frontline health workers—tailored to the unique constraints of very low-resource settings; as well as the financing, manufacturing, and delivery systems these essential resources require.As the only US agency with a mission focused exclusively on global development, USAID is uniquely positioned to support product development to address the critical shortfall of appropriate tools. The agency’s deep international footprint, combined with its in-depth understanding of community needs, enables the agency to develop new health tools that are appropriate, affordable, and accessible for widespread use in low-resource settings where basic resources like electricity and clean water may be in short supply—including during health emergencies. In previous global health crises such as the West African Ebola epidemic and the Zika epidemic in Latin America, USAID helped crowdsource and advance to market innovative technologies to fight these outbreaks, and it is poised to do so again in the face of COVID-19—with adequate resources. In March, USAID issued a Request for Information (RFI) seeking proposals for low-cost, scalable innovations that could support the international COVID-19 response, including new products, service delivery approaches, and information channels. The agency received a strong response in the nine-day window the RFI was open, but funding is urgently needed to advance these proposals. GHTC urges leaders in Congress—who have for two decades championed forward-thinking investments in strengthening global health—to consider the full range of funding needed to tackle this unprecedented global health emergency by resourcing the unique capabilities of USAID. At this moment of global crisis, we must draw on the strengths of all partners to ensure that together, we can end the COVID-19 pandemic.

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. Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has moved into phase 3 trials for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, making the company the fourth vaccine maker to enter late-stage trials in the United States and the first to do so with a single-dose vaccine candidate. In addition to being single-dose, J&J’s vaccine candidate can be stored at refrigerator temperatures for three months, making it more accessible to countries with less health care infrastructure than vaccines that require freezing. The phase 3 trial will be run at sites in the United States, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, and other countries, and will include significant representation of people over the age of 60 and minorities at disproportionate risk of infection, according to J&J. The company is enrolling up to 60,000 volunteers and has said the trial could yield results by the end of the year, allowing it to seek emergency use authorization in early 2021.The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently authorized for emergency use the first COVID-19 antibody test designed for use at point of care, instead of requiring samples to be shipped and tested at a laboratory. The fingerstick blood test—manufactured by Assure Tech, represented by Azure Biotech in the United States—provides results for two types of coronavirus antibodies within 15 minutes, using a lined strip similar to a pregnancy test. During an independent evaluation run in June, the test was found to have no false-negative results and a 1.2 percent false-positive rate. FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn emphasized in a statement that point-of-care tests are more convenient, require less resources, and will decrease the time spent running antibody tests, in comparison with tests requiring lab processing.Achieving equitable distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine, once available, will require overcoming substantial financing and misinformation hurdles, according to global health and development leaders who spoke at the United Nations General Assembly. While optimistic that a vaccine will be developed and can end the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders noted the importance of ensuring delivery to all in need, including communities at highest risk. One global mechanism working to ensure such equitable distribution is the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access (COVAX) Facility, which intends to help ensure a vaccine reaches vulnerable populations by guaranteeing all participating low- and middle-income countries receive enough vaccines to cover 20 percent of their population. The COVAX Facility also includes 64 high-income countries and is working to raise US$2 billion to help produce 1 billion vaccine doses by the end of 2021.