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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. World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced at the 72nd World Health Assembly that a WHO Foundation would be set up later this year. The foundation, which was first mentioned at the 144th Executive Board Meeting in January, aims to broaden the organization’s donor base and “enable us to generate funding from previously untapped sources,” said Dr. Tedros. Details about the proposed foundation’s structure, governance, operating model, and legal status are still being hashed out. According to WHO officials, the foundation would be totally independent of WHO—no longer requiring the approval of the World Health Assembly—but could potentially be linked by contract to WHO to help fundraise for the organization from the general public and high net worth individuals. WHO aims to raise US$14.1 billion between 2019-2023 to deliver on its triple-billion targets. On Wednesday, WHO officially declared Algeria and Argentina free of malaria. Algeria, the country where malaria was first discovered, is now the third African country—following Mauritius in 1973 and Morocco in 2010—to eliminate the disease, which kills more than 400,000 people annually. Argentina is the second country in the Americas, after Paraguay, in 45 years to eliminate the disease. Despite WHO declaring 38 countries malaria-free since 1955, progress against the disease has stalled as malaria-carrying mosquitoes have become resistant to certain drugs used to treat the disease and insecticides used in bednets that protect people from being bitten while sleeping. Researchers at McMaster University have developed an affordable, durable method of transporting temperature-sensitive vaccines to low-resource settings that is inspired by breath strips. The solution: mixing dried vaccines with two sugar powders used to create the dissolvable film structure of breath strips. By using this technique, vaccines can stay stable at temperatures up to 40 degrees Celsius for up to three months. This approach circumvents the need to maintain a “cold chain” during transport from supplier to patient—a task which poses logistical and financial challenges in the hot climates of developing countries where infectious disease threats are endemic. Water or saline can be added to dissolve the sugary combination, and the same reconstituted liquid can be used for injections or nasal sprays. The researchers have tested the approach in lab experiments, but not people, and are pursuing funding to refine and deploy the technology.

The following statement—from Global Health Council (GHC), supported by Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC), Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), Management Sciences for Health (MSH), Partners In Health (PIH), and Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF)—was delivered at the 72nd World Health Assembly on agenda item 11.8: Follow-up to the high-level meetings of the United Nations General Assembly on health-related issues, ending tuberculosis.GHC supported by GHTC, IDSA, MSH, PIH and EGPAF applaud member states for adopting a strong political declaration at the UN High Level Meeting on TB. TB is the world's leading infectious killer, and if efforts to tackle TB continue at the current rate, 28 million people will die by 2030, at a global economic cost of USD $983BN. We call on the WHO and nations to deliver on the commitments of the HLM to diagnose and treat 40 million people by 2022, including 3.5 million children, and close the US$1.3BN funding gap for TB R&D annually.We urge WHO and funding partners to help countries roll out new treatment and prevention regimens, including rifamycin-based prevention regimens that cut therapy from 6 months to 3 and must be scaled up among people living with HIV and children. WHO and funding partners should promote pediatric treatment formulations, improved diagnostics, and child-focused case finding strategies such as community-based contact tracing and integration of TB care in MNCH services.Countries must invest in new medicines and technologies to treat multidrug-resistant TB, which drives increasing rates of antimicrobial resistance, and for rapid and equitable access to new medicines and technologies. Scale-up of new all-oral regimens to treat MDR-TB that are shorter, cheaper and better tolerated will ensure more people successfully complete treatment.We call for full implementation of the WHO Multisectoral Accountability Framework with global high-level review through a multisectoral panel chaired by an independent expert, supported by a secretariat and hosted by an existing organization. This panel should review whether targets set by countries match up with targets agreed to at the HLM.We urge countries to increase contributions to the Global Fund for the next replenishment cycle, as we won’t achieve the commitments of the HLM without greater resources.

The following statement—from Global Health Council, supported by the Global Health Technologies Coalition—was delivered at the 72nd World Health Assembly on agenda item 12.1: Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework for the sharing of influenza viruses and access to vaccines and other benefit.Global Health Council supported by Global Health Technologies Coalition encourages innovative technologies and approaches to accelerate universal influenza vaccine research and development. Pandemic influenza is a looming public health threat — as the World Health Organization has noted, its emergence is a “matter of when not if — with far-reaching consequences.”  The only way that we can take the threat of influenza off the table is with a vaccine that protects against influenza viruses we know and those we have yet to experience. Combating this significant threat to global health and shortening the timeline for a vaccine will require significant prioritization, collaboration, and investment in new approaches by WHO, member states as well as new partners.The world needs a universal influenza vaccine to prevent massive loss of life and the extraordinary economic impact that a pandemic would have on our society. Progress has been slow but given the urgency, we need to explore new ways to solve this problem.

The following statement—from Global Health Council supported by Global Health Technologies Coalition, Global Water 2020, and Infectious Diseases Society of America—was delivered at the 72nd World Health Assembly on agenda item 11.8: Follow-up to the high-level meetings of the United Nations General Assembly on health-related issues, Antimicrobial Resistance.Global Health Council supported by the Global Health Technologies Coalition, Global Water 2020 and the Infectious Diseases Society of America are pleased to see attention focused on antimicrobial resistance. AMR threatens to roll back medical progress by further complicating treatment of tuberculosis, pneumonia, malaria, typhoid, diarrheal diseases, and hospital-associated infections. Cancer chemotherapy, transplantation and other complex surgeries all rely upon the availability of antibiotics. We applaud recognition of the need for new antimicrobials, diagnostics and vaccines as well as stewardship, surveillance, infection prevention and control, and access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene in healthcare facilities to effectively combat AMR. We hope that WHO and member states continue progress toward the commitments made at the UN High Level Meeting on AMR.Innovation and R&D must be at the heart of any agenda to tackle AMR. In April 2019 one of the few companies in the antibiotic market—Achaogen—entered bankruptcy, despite having launched an important new antibiotic last year. This news sent a devastating signal to investors, who were already shying away from antibiotic development. New incentives are needed to protect the antibiotic pipeline.  We appreciate the increasing number of countries providing data to the GLASS surveillance system, though we recognize the need to expand this effort to include additional countries and more robust data. We appreciate the support WHO and member states are providing for the implementation of stewardship and infection prevention programs, but recognize that significantly more resources are needed for widespread meaningful uptake. Further investment in resources needed to prevent infections, and thus prevent the need for antibiotic use, is essential.  National action plans are a useful tool to drive all of this progress.We thank WHO for continued efforts and encourage member states prioritize AMR investments.