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The Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC) condemns the US administration’s official notification to the United Nations secretary-general to start the process of withdrawing as a member of the World Health Organization (WHO). The United States helped found WHO in 1948 based on the understanding that diseases know no borders and that collective efforts to eradicate disease are better than any single country going it alone. WHO has been a valued partner in strengthening health research, product development, and regulatory systems globally. It plays a critical normative role in collecting health intelligence from around the world and helping support research advancement in HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, neglected tropical diseases, emerging infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance, and many other health areas. Looking at the current pandemic alone, WHO has played a herculean role in mobilizing the research response:It quickly developed target product profiles to guide global efforts to develop tests, treatments, and vaccines.It has marshaled a partnership with member states, major donors, and the private sector to create the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator to coordinate the development, manufacturing, and distribution of COVID-19 technologies. It is coordinating the Solidarity Trial, an unprecedented global effort to test potential treatments and vaccines, which includes the participation of over 100 countries and facilitates the comparison of potential therapeutic treatments 80 percent faster than single-country studies.It is coordinating safe and efficient Emergency Use Listings of COVID-19 products to support national regulatory agencies in reviewing products as quickly as possible when they become available and has created guidelines for developers who will seek approval of products through its prequalification program. It is developing a framework strategy for the distribution of future coronavirus treatments and vaccines, with over 4 billion doses needed to vaccinate the world's priority populations. Each element of WHO’s COVID-19 response touches the ongoing work of US government agencies, private-sector partners, researchers, and the academic community to collectively fight this pandemic.We urge Congress to engage with US agencies and other partners who work on health research and product development to request information on the myriad ways their work is advanced and strengthened through collaboration with WHO and how it might be negatively impacted by the Aministration’s decision. Remaining a member of WHO is in our health, security, economic, and scientific interests, and we once again call on Congress to take action and demand the Administration reverse this decision.

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 Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published guidance Tuesday outlining its standards for approving COVID-19 vaccines. According to the nonbinding guidelines, a vaccine candidate will need to be at least 50 percent more effective than a placebo to be fully approved—a benchmark often used for flu vaccine approval. FDA did not rule out potential for issuance of Emergency Use Authorizations, which would allow a vaccine to be temporarily approved based on relevant scientific evidence, before formal review of the candidate. In addition to the written guidelines, FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn testified in front of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Tuesday, reinforcing FDA’s commitment to a safe regulatory process and development of medical countermeasures to fight COVID-19.A COVID-19 vaccine developed by CanSino Biologics and the Beijing Institute of Biotechnology was approved for Chinese military use on June 25. The vaccine, Ad5-nCoV, was approved for phase 1 clinical trials in March and has since completed phase 1 and 2 trials. Clinical results showed safety and efficacy of the vaccine, according to CanSino. The recent approval, issued by China’s Central Military Commission, will last one year and is limited to military use. There are currently eight vaccine candidates in China approved for human trials at home and abroad, including Ad5-nCoV.Researchers at Columbia University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison recently identified five existing drugs that interfere with polymerase, a protein that helps SARS-CoV-2 spread throughout the body. Disrupting the polymerase reaction could help the immune system destroy SARS-CoV-2 and stop coronavirus infection. The five FDA-approved drugs include: ViiV’s Ziagen and Bristol Myers Squibb’s Zerit, both used to treat HIV; Roche’s Valcyte and Gilead’s Vistide, used for cytomegalovirus; and BMS’ Baraclude, used for hepatitis B. The researchers will perform cell-culture studies on these five antivirals to determine their efficacy against COVID-19, after which the most effective drugs could advance to further studies.