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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. Last Wednesday, Gilead announced that its twice-yearly injectable drug for HIV prevention has received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration, the first and only such shot for HIV prevention. The drug, lenacapavir, which is already used to treat HIV in certain populations, was found to dramatically reduce the risk of infection, providing near total protection among cisgender men and women, transgender men and women, and nonbinary people in clinical trials. The twice-a-year injection offers a significant improvement over current HIV prevention options that require a daily pill or every two-month injections, helping improve uptake and adherence by providing a more discreet, private, and less cumbersome alternative. Pricing and access plans for the United States and the rest of the world will determine the scale of lenacapavir’s impact on the broader HIV epidemic.Researchers from Cornell University have found that the antibiotic rifampin, which is already widely used, is 99.9 percent effective against Salmonella Typhi, the bacterium that causes typhoid fever, which a growing threat due to antibiotic resistance. The researchers found that S. Typhi is still highly susceptible to the antibiotic and that rifampin-resistant typhoid is extremely unlikely to emerge, despite concern due to the previous emergence of rifampin-resistant tuberculosis cases. The researchers found that rifampin may also be effective against other life-threatening diseases like bacterial pneumonia and meningitis.Newly published research found that a simple, affordable device made with strips of paper was more effective than other commonly used testing methods at detecting malaria in asymptomatic people in Ghana. Malaria testing, particularly at the point of care, is essential to malaria control in endemic areas, especially as increased uptake of the new preventive malaria vaccine lowers natural immunity, raising the need for widespread surveillance. The new test is highly sensitive, offers results in about 30 minutes, and can detect even a low density of parasites in the blood, catching malaria before a patient is sick.

GHTC sent public written testimony to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs (SFOPS) and Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (LHHS), urging policymakers to increase funding and include supportive policy directives for global health research and development in fiscal year 2026 (FY26) spending bills. Among other priorities, the testimony urges Congress to continue to direct the US Agency for International Development and the Department of State to prioritize science, technology, and innovation as core pillars of its global health mission and to appropriate robust funding for emerging infectious diseases and additional funding for antimicrobial resistance at the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.

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. Last week, the Global Antibiotic Research & Development Partnership (GARDP) announced that a landmark clinical trial evaluating antibiotic combination treatment options for newborns with sepsis has been expanded to include hospitals across nine countries in Africa and Asia. Neonatal sepsis affects up to three million babies a year globally, a crisis that has been exacerbated by increasing numbers of antibiotic-resistant cases. The NeoSep1 trial is the first time that researchers will test whether new combinations of older antibiotics are safe and effective against treating newborns with sepsis compared to commonly used antibiotic regimens. The trial aims to provide critical data to help identify new treatments that could reduce the number of deaths and expand access to treatment.A new animal study from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that H5N1 avian influenza is capable of spreading through the air, a finding that raises further concern about the ability of the virus, which continues its worrying spread among cattle populations, to cause a future pandemic. The researchers used a sample of the virus extracted from a dairy worker to infect a group of ferrets (the “gold standard” comparative animal population in flu research) that were then placed in close proximity to healthy ferrets and observed for three weeks. Three of that latter group contracted the virus without any direct physical contact with the infected ferrets, indicating that it can travel through the air, a finding that was confirmed with aerosol samples. The researchers emphasized that these findings underscore the need for continued surveillance of the ongoing outbreak.A team of researchers at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and the Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research have been awarded £550,000 by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council to develop an effective vaccine against Campylobacter jejuni, the most common bacterial cause of infectious diarrhea, in poultry. A poultry vaccine could help reduce the rising incidence of C. jejuni human infections, which are common in young children, causing stunted growth, lifelong deficiencies, and even death. The LSHTM team has found a promising approach for developing new cost-effective vaccines, which will be furthered with the new funding.