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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. The US Department of Defense is providing US$71 million for increased production of Inovio Pharmaceutical’s Cellectra devices—small, hand-held tools that are used to deliver Inovio’s vaccine candidate, INO-4800, directly to the skin without the use of needles. The device works by using a small electrical pulse that enables the DNA-based virus to pass into the recipient’s skin. Cellectra operates on AA batteries, and it is designed to "function reliably in challenging environments and can be stockpiled in large quantities without maintenance.” The vaccine, INO-4800, is expected to remain effective for up to one year in room-temperature storage. These durable qualities could make this vaccine system effective for low-resource settings. Inovio expects to begin a phase 2/3 trial in July. On Wednesday, the University of Oxford launched the first clinical trial in Africa of a COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine being evaluated, AZD1222, was invented at the University of Oxford and is being developed in partnership with AstraZeneca. The trial is being conducted in South Africa, which has 120,000 of the continent’s 340,000 total cases. It represents a key moment for a continent that has so far been elbowed out of the global competition for medical supplies during the pandemic. Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Chief John Nkengasong said, “unless we act now, Africa is at risk of being left behind on the global vaccine.” Others noted that several African countries have clinical trial capacities to contribute to global research and development. The University of Oxford is also running trials of AZD1222 in Brazil and Britain.Remdesivir, the first drug to demonstrate a benefit for treating COVID-19, has so far been delivered intravenously but will now be evaluated in an inhalable form in clinical trials. The inhalable version will be delivered via a nebulizer, a tool commonly available in the United States. Scientists at Gilead, remdesivir’s sponsor, hope that the availability of nebulizers will make it easier to use remdesivir at earlier stages of infection, such as when a patient tests positive but is presymptomatic. While delivering remdesivir as an inhalant may help overcome some of the limitations of intravenous delivery, it may also present other issues. Some physicians are worried that using a nebulizer could enable the spread of viral particles, and at improper doses, remdesivir can be toxic.

The Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC) released the following statement in advance of the Global Goal: Unite for Our Future Summit on June 27:The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare that the extent of our preparedness for any health emergency is determined by the tools we have to respond to it. It is clearer now than ever before that research and development (R&D) must be the tip of the spear of our response to global health emergencies—and that innovation is our exit strategy from the economic and social ills brought on by this unprecedented crisis.At the recent pledging conference organized by the European Union and the replenishment summit for Gavi, the vaccine alliance, world leaders took an important first step in mobilizing crucial funds to develop innovations to help the poorest countries cope with COVID-19 and strengthen health systems. But this is not enough.As world leaders gather again at the Global Goal: Unite for Our Future Summit on June 27th, we must seize this opportunity to ensure that we have the resources and efficient, inclusive mechanisms in place to rid the world of COVID-19, deliver equitable access to innovations, and prevent future pandemics. To do that, leaders must urgently commit to sustainable financing for pandemic preparedness and health R&D. We must break the deadly and costly cycle of panic and neglect once and for all.We welcome country commitments made thus far to support the development of COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines, but underscore that more investment is needed. Diagnostic testing for COVID-19, in particular, remains severely underfunded, with just 2.5 percent of all donated funds allocated to diagnostic efforts.As an organization focused on the advancement of drugs, vaccines, diagnostics, and other tools for poverty-related and neglected diseases, GHTC is pleased to serve as a civil society partner focused on the upstream R&D activities of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator and supports robust Global South-led civil society engagement, particularly to articulate the demand for various COVID-19 products as they are being developed. Innovations must be developed with the needs of vulnerable communities in mind, and any plan being launched on the development, production, procurement, and distribution of possible future health technologies needs to have universal access and equity at its heart.  Furthermore, we encourage leaders to leverage the summit for a dialogue on how countries can work together to strengthen and participate in the World Health Organization’s Global Allocation Framework for COVID-19 products.The June 27th summit is an opportunity for the world to come together and to lay another marker on the long road to ending the COVID-19 crisis and building a sustainable health R&D infrastructure to face future outbreaks.