News

The Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC) today honored Senator John Boozman (R-AR) and Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) for their leadership in supporting global health research and development (R&D) with its 2020 Innovating for Impact Awards, which celebrate the US policymakers and partnerships driving global health innovation. GHTC also recognized the CARB-X partnership for its progress in accelerating research to combat the urgent threat of drug-resistant bacteria.“We can be proud of our nation's leadership in advancing medical research and developing vaccines and treatments to improve the lives of people around the globe,” Senator Boozman said in accepting the award. “The COVID-19 emergency illustrates the importance of research and development in fighting deadly diseases. This outbreak demonstrates how globally connected we are and why helping solve health issues abroad also helps our own country.” Senator Boozman, who serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee, was honored with a Congressional Champion Award for his longstanding work to grow funding for US global health initiatives and protect Army and Navy malaria research programs, as well as his unwavering commitment to international cooperation and global health during the COVID-19 pandemic.GHTC also recognized Senator Murray, who is ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee and member of the Appropriations Committee, with a Congressional Champion Award for her instrumental role in strengthening the R&D ecosystem across multiple US agencies and her efforts to bolster US preparedness and response to global health threats including COVID-19. “As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage, the value of investing in global health research and partnerships has never been so painfully clear,” Senator Murray said in accepting the award. “We know new diseases are not stopped by borders. They are stopped by new discoveries and by partnerships that help those discoveries reach every corner of the world.”Additionally, GHTC honored CARB-X and its partners with the Partnership Award for their work to advance next-generation tools to combat antibiotic resistance. This unique multisector partnership, which is helping developers bring new antibiotics, vaccines, and other products to market, is led by Professor Kevin Outterson at Boston University and supported by the US government—via the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases—and additional global partners including the Wellcome Trust, UK and German governments, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.Since its inception in 2016, CARB-X has supported 75 diverse projects across ten countries with its portfolio now representing the world’s largest early development pipeline of antibacterial innovations. With several of these projects progressing and meeting research milestones on the path to regulatory approval, CARB-X is fueling an expanding pipeline of tools to respond to this pressing global health challenge.“The CARB-X team is deeply honored to receive this award. It recognizes the work we do together with our funders, leading scientists and experts, and outstanding research teams around the world to achieve a common vision: protect humanity from the most serious bacterial threats by accelerating innovative antibacterial product development,” said Professor Outterson, executive director of CARB-X. “The COVID-19 pandemic is a bitter reminder of the need to be prepared for global public health crises. As we struggle with COVID-19, we must also address the antibiotic-resistance crisis.”While in past years GHTC’s Innovating for Impact Awards have been presented in person at a recognition event in Washington, DC, in light the of COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 awards were unveiled via an online multimedia campaign.“GHTC is thrilled to honor Senators Boozman and Murray and the CARB-X partnership with our Innovating for Impact Awards,” said Jamie Bay Nishi, director of GHTC. “US leadership in global health R&D has helped fuel tremendous progress in generating new cures and vaccines to fight the world’s deadliest health threats, and we’re so delighted to recognize the outstanding work of our honorees who are helping make this progress possible.”Global health R&D is vital to conquering the world’s greatest health challenges and to building a safer, healthier world for all. Now in its fourth year, the Innovating for Impact Awards celebrates US commitment to global health R&D and honors the multisector partnerships and policymakers helping to transform breakthrough scientific research into lifesaving technologies for unmet global health challenges. 

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.The United Kingdom’s Medicines Healthcare products Regulatory Authority on Wednesday authorized Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use across the country. The United Kingdom has a supply deal for 40 million doses of the vaccine, enough for 20 million people, which it will begin to distribute in the upcoming days to priority groups including care home residents, health and care staff, the elderly, and populations that are clinically extremely vulnerable. The mRNA-based vaccine, which was shown to have 95 percent efficacy in phase 3 trials, requires a strict cold chain and will be delivered through a network of 50 hospitals, as well as specialist vaccination centers, and any general practitioners and pharmacists that have cold storage capacity. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency are expected to finalize their reviews of the vaccine candidate within the next few weeks.A major federal advisory committee in the United States voted Tuesday that health care personnel and people who live in long-term care facilities should receive priority in COVID-19 vaccine distribution. However, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) also acknowledged that pregnant health care workers, who make up about 330,000 members of the workforce, are at heightened risk of COVID-19 mortality and that none of the initial vaccine products have been specifically tested in pregnant people, leaving their inclusion in early vaccine rollout an open question. The unclear implications of the guidance likely means that if the ACIP recommendation is accepted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the decision will fall to individual states and health care systems to determine whether to offer pregnant health care workers the vaccine alongside their non-pregnant colleagues. FDA emergency use authorization applications for Pfizer’s and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine candidates are currently pending, which could lead to approval and rollout later this month.Biotech company Roche received FDA emergency use authorization for its COVID-19 antibody blood test capable of measuring the levels of specific antibodies that target the virus’ cell-unlocking spike protein. The quantitative antibody test provides a result in about 18 minutes and was shown to be very accurate in the 15 days after screening and diagnosis of an active infection with a molecular test. Studies also showed that patients’ antibody concentrations did not fall below a detectable range for at least 100 days following infection. The company has said tests of this kind will play a critical role in measuring vaccine-induced immune responses, and hopes it will help track the success of vaccines as well as identify people who have recovered from an infection and could serve as convalescent plasma donors or assist in the development of new therapies.