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The Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC) has opened nominations for its 2020 Innovating for Impact Awards. Now in its fourth year, this initiative recognizes the research partnerships and political champions that help transform breakthrough scientific research into lifesaving drugs, diagnostics, vaccines, and other tools for devastating, unmet global health challenges. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s honorees will be recognized through a digital, multimedia campaign in lieu of our annual recognition dinner.Awards will be presented in two categories:The PARTNERSHIP AWARD honors an innovative research and development (R&D) partnership that brings together multisector partners to advance a high-impact, game-changing global health technology. The partnership must have received federally funded research support or in-kind support from a US government agency.The CONGRESSIONAL CHAMPION AWARD honors two US Members of Congress whose actions have strengthened political will and advanced US efforts to develop technologies to fight the world’s most challenging diseases and health conditions.Nominations will be open until Friday, July 31, 2020. Awardees will be editorially selected by a committee of leaders from the global health and research communities and honored through a digital, multimedia campaign in early December that will reach an audience of policymakers, US government officials, media, and leaders of the global health and medical research communities.Previous honorees for the Congressional Champion Award include Senators Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Chris Coons (D-DE) and Representatives Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), and Tom Cole (R-OK). Past Partnership Award honorees include the respective partnerships that developed the dapivirine microbicide ring for HIV prevention, child-friendly tuberculosis medicines, and the RTS,S malaria vaccine.

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R&D News Roundup email.Dexamethasone, an inexpensive, decades-old drug is showing promise for treating COVID-19, per unpublished, preliminary results from a study called Recovery that was funded by the United Kingdom. The preliminary results indicated that the drug reduced the risk of death for patients on ventilators by 35 percent, those receiving oxygen by 20 percent, and overall mortality by 17 percent. Immediately following the results, the United Kingdom granted approval for use of the drug to treat COVID-19. According to FiercePharma, UK officials have enough dexamethasone stockpiled to treat 200,000 patients.  A recent study lends support to anecdotal evidence that blood type and genetics may be linked to worse outcomes from COVID-19 illness. Last Wednesday, a team of European researchers published a study in The New England Journal of Medicine indicating that people with type A blood have a 45 percent higher risk of catching COVID-19 and sliding into respiratory failure and people with type O blood have a 35 percent lower risk of developing respiratory failure compared to people with other blood types. Scientists are still unsure why blood type might be correlated with COVID-19 outcomes, but a nascent hypothesis is that it could be linked to blood clotting risk. The researchers also found that a cluster of genes are associated with higher risk of developing severe COVID-19 by 77 percent.A project led by researchers from Scripps Research, GHTC member IAVI, and the University of California San Diego School of Medicine published research in Science detailing a set of antibodies discovered in recovered COVID-19 patients that provide powerful protection against SARS-CoV-2. In theory, the antibodies could be given to patients who are just developing the illness to prevent progression to severe disease and to protect people who are at higher risk for contracting COVID-19. To discover the antibodies, the scientists isolated more than 1,000 distinct antibody-producing immune cells, obtained genetic sequences from these cells to produce more antibodies, and then tested the antibodies’ effectiveness against blocking the virus in vitro. The researchers discovered several antibodies that, even in small quantities, could block the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The work was funded by the US National Institutes of Health, IAVI, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, among others.

A letter endorsed by GHTC's director Jamie Bay Nishi calling for greater investment in research on COVID-19 diagnostics through the ACT Accelerator was featured in Politico Europe's Morning Health Care newsletter. The letter, from the G20 Health and Development Partnership, notes the ACT Accelerator has allocated only 2.5 percent of funding to diagnostics despite their critical importance to an effective response to COVID-19 and calls for countries to remedy this funding imbalance at the June 27th Second Pledging Conference organized by the European Union in partnership with Global Citizen.See excerpt below from the Politico newsletter:FIRST IN MHC — ‘MORE MONEY FOR TESTING,’ ADVOCACY GROUP SAYS: The G20 Health and Development Partnership is calling for more funds to be spent on testing. In an open letter due to be published today, the advocacy group said that too little money is being spent on diagnostic solutions in the pandemic. It noted that the ACT-Accelerator has allocated about 46 percent of donated funds to strengthen health systems and around 24 percent to vaccine development, but less than 3 percent on testing solutions. “It is puzzling why diagnostics have received such low levels of funding given its critical importance to an effective response to COVID-19,” the letter reads.

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 Department of Defense Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense (JPEO-CBRND) and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) will partner with SiO2, an advanced materials science company, to introduce a novel technology for packaging COVID-19 vaccines and other pharmaceuticals. JPEO-CBRND and BARDA will provide US$143 million in funding to scale production of the company’s new technology that includes a plastic container with a microscopic glass coating. The product is thermal stable (range of -196 C to 121 C), highly durable (able to withstand 1,500 pounds of direct force), and precision molded, making it more dimensionally consistent than glass vials.The vaccine candidate, mRNA-1273, developed by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in partnership with Moderna, will begin phase 3 clinical testing by July, followed in August by Oxford University/AstraZeneca’s vaccine, and in September by Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine. All three companies are backed by the US government as part of Operation Warp Speed, and each is testing new technology.On Monday, an official from the World Health Organization (WHO) suggested that spread of COVID-19 by people who are asymptomatic is “very rare,” but clarified on Tuesday that scientists are actually unsure how frequently asymptomatic spread occurs. The initial comments caused a stir among public health experts, some labelling the comment as miscommunication. Underlying the confusion is that the term “asymptomatic” can mean either people who are presymptomatic or people who develop a full infection without showing symptoms. There is some evidence that fully asymptomatic cases may not be very contagious, while other studies show that patients may be most contagious when they are presymptomatic. Either way, experts note, individuals without symptoms should still be taking precautions.