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G20 health and finance ministers urged to bring about the necessary marriage between the wealth and the health of nations A global coalition of charities, businesses, product development partnerships and academics have come together to say the G20 is failing to meet today’s urgent health challenges and this will only be solved if heads of government and finance ministers take charge to stop this severe threat to the global economy as well as to humanity. The G20 Health and Development Partnership – representing 21 leading global organisations and more than 1000 collaborators – will today urge G20 heads of government and finance ministers to join health ministers in addressing the growing disease burden before it is too late. It is predicted that the number of deaths in the G20 countries from non-communicable diseases, such as cancer, heart diseases and diabetes will double by 2030 if urgent steps are not taken now. Together with the fact that tuberculosis still remains the number one killer globally, the rise of drug resistance amongst infectious diseases pose an existential threat to society. The report, which is being launched in the UK parliament today (Tuesday 5th March) calls on G20 heads of government and finance ministers to ‘take ownership’ of this issue similar to their efforts combatting climate change - rather than just leave it to health ministers. The economic consequences in low- and middle income countries of the increasing disease burden is unsustainable if not addressed. The partnership is presenting the report to the heads of government finance and health ministers in advance of the joint G20 health and finance ministers meeting in Japan this June. Lord Jim O’Neill, chair of the Royal Institute of International Affairs Chatham House London, said: “This report by the G20 Health and Development Partnership is an appeal to G20 finance ministers to remove the silo walls around health care to see what can be done to make a link between the health and the wealth of our nations. “It sets out to support the need to invest in human capital in terms of global health. It is a holistic approach that blends economics and health so that the wealth and the health of nations are united in a new priority for government, society and the economic actors in the rest of the century. “I would like the G20 health and finance ministers to bring about the necessary marriage between the wealth and the health of nations.” Alan Donnelly, Convener of the G20 Health and Development Partnership and Executive Chairman of Sovereign Sustainability and Development, said: “The richest nations of the world will miss their own health global goals unless governments recognise the existential nature of the threat, make it a priority for leaders, and develop new partnerships because government funding isn’t going to fix this alone. “This is no longer just an issue for health ministers, it is now an issue for heads of government and for finance ministers because of the threat to the global economy as well as to humanity. “The G20 Health and Development Partnership, which emerged during the course of the German presidency in 2017, works to ensure that G20 countries are coordinating their health innovation strategy to tackle the growing burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases globally. “This year the G20 can set in motion steps to examine new ways of funding innovation in health and encourage the establishment of mechanisms that will help to fund the diagnostics, vaccines and medicines that are so urgently required globally.”

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 Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) is investing US$34 million into the German biotech company CureVac to develop vaccine “printing” technology that could rapidly manufacture vaccines to treat multiple diseases. Specifically, this funding will help CureVac work on a prototype of its RNA printer product, a transportable automated printing facility for molecules known as messenger RNA (mRNA)—used to transport genetic information from DNA into a cell, instructing it to produce a specific antigen to induce an immune response. As part of this three-year deal with CEPI, CureVac will use its mRNA platform to produce vaccines for Lassa fever, Rabies, and Yellow fever. If preclinical tests are successful, two of the vaccine candidates will be developed through early-stage safety trials in people. As epidemics of infectious diseases can be unpredictable and fast-moving, CureVac’s vaccine platform could help improve our ability to defend against such pathogens. Treating bednets with an antimalarial drug could be a promising new approach to controlling the disease. Although insecticide-treated bednets have been credited with averting 68 percent of all malaria cases since 2000, scientists believe mosquitoes are developing a resistance to pyrethroid, the insecticide predominantly used to treat bednets. Researchers at Harvard University demonstrated that an antimalarial drug can be transmitted to mosquitoes through brief direct contact and effectively halt the transmission of the malaria-causing parasite. In the study, researchers coated a petri dish with atovaquone, a commonly used antimalarial drug. Mosquitoes landed on the treated surface for approximately six minutes and were then fed a blood meal rife with the malaria parasite. Results showed that none of the mosquitoes treated with antimalarial drugs harbored the parasite and demonstrated proof of concept that antimalarial-treated bednets could be a powerful new tool in the fight against malaria. The US Food and Drug Administration has granted Fast Track designation to the Themis Bioscience chikungunya vaccine candidate, which allows the product to receive an expedited agency review given its potential to meet an unmet medical need. Themis hopes this designation will support its phase 3 development efforts for the vaccine, which showed encouraging results in phase 2. Two other chikungunya vaccine candidates have also received Fast Track designation, though the Themis vaccine is the most advanced in development. There are no current treatments or vaccines for chikungunya, a disease for which symptoms include debilitating joint pain.

On February 15, President Trump signed into law a bipartisan spending bill—averting another partial government shutdown and ensuring full-year funding for the government for the remainder of fiscal year (FY) 2019. The move followed several days of speculation about whether discord between Congress and the President on funding for a border wall would imperil the spending measure passed by Congress to fund the remaining one-quarter of the federal government.The months-long saga ended with some great news for global health and research and development (R&D)—a roughly US$150 million funding increase for global health programs in the State and Foreign Operations (SFOPs) bill, as well as a significant boost to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the Agriculture bill included in the package.The bill included some welcome increases to global health accounts which have been flat-funded for five years running, including a $50 million (1.16 percent) increase to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and a $2.5 million (2.5 percent) increase to the US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Neglected Tropical Disease Program compared to FY 2018. Nutrition saw a $20 million (16 percent) increase and Maternal and Child Health got a $5.5 million (0.66 percent) boost. But perhaps the most notable win in the bill was a long-sought increase to USAID’s tuberculosis (TB) program. After TB was in the spotlight at the United Nations High-Level Meeting on TB in September, the United States backed up its pledge of additional support for the global fight against TB by including a $41 million (15.71 percent) increase to the program in the final spending package for FY 2019—the largest increase to the program in more than five years. All other global health accounts were level-funded compared to FY 2018, resulting in an overall increase of 3.23 percent for USAID Global Health—a stark difference from the 36 percent cut proposed in the President’s budget.While most accounts of relevance to global health R&D within the Department of Health and Human Services were funded for the entire fiscal year in a spending package passed in September, the FDA was one agency whose funding was still in limbo. The FDA’s unique funding structure—divided between budget authority, or discretionary funding (appropriated by Congress), and fees (paid by FDA users) —shielded the agency from some of the worst impacts of the partial government shutdown in December and January as it drew down on user fees to continue most operations. But the final FY 2019 funding package included a welcome $460 million (9 percent) increase for the agency, including a $269 million (9 percent) increase in budget authority.As the FY 2019 appropriations process lurched across the finish line, advocates were already gearing up for another budget battle for FY 2020. Check back for regular updates as appropriations hearings begin and GHTC continues monitoring the prospects for global health R&D accounts in the coming year.  For reference, the text of the Conference Report to accompany H.J. Res. 31, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2019, is available here, the text of the Joint Explanatory Statement is here (with the Global Health Program breakdown on page 454 of the PDF), and a division-by-division summary is available here.