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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. The World Health Organization (WHO) has changed its guidelines to strongly recommend the antiretroviral medication dolutegravir (DTG) as the preferred first- and second-line treatment for all people living with HIV, including pregnant women. Last year, many countries advised pregnant women, or those who might become pregnant, to take efavirenz (EFV) instead of DTG after a study in Botswana found a possible link between DTG and serious birth defects in newborns. Presenting new research from the ongoing study at the International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Science, WHO stated that the potential risk for birth defects was significantly lower than previously estimated, with benefits for women outweighing drawbacks. Preliminary testing of an implant containing a new antiretroviral drug, islatravir, in a dozen patients over 12 weeks suggests that it may protect against HIV infection for a full year. The implant, a matchstick-sized plastic rod inserted just under the skin of the upper arm, slowly releases tiny doses of islatravir, which lingers in the body for a relatively long time so it can be given less than other medications. Unlike some other HIV drugs, islatravir is absorbed into the anal and genital tissues where most infections start and is less likely to give rise to drug-resistant strains since it attacks a different stage in the infection process. The implant could help those at risk of HIV infection, particularly women in Africa, who are looking for prevention methods that are easier to use and conceal. Large clinical testing is required to determine the safety and efficacy of this implant in protecting against HIV infection. Malaria drugs are failing at an alarming rate in Southeast Asia as drug-resistant strains of the disease emerge, according to two new reports released in The Lancet—prompting global concern that this drug resistance could spread around the world. One of the studies, performed in the greater Mekong region, compared a new three-drug malaria regimen against the conventional two-drug artemisinin combo—used to treat the majority of malaria cases—when researchers noticed the antimalarial drugs in the current regimen weren’t fully wiping out the deadly parasites. The overall failure rate was 50 percent, but in some parts of the region the drugs weren’t working nine times out of ten. If drug resistance to first-line malaria drugs continues to spread, it could mean major setbacks to the global effort to control the mosquito-borne disease.

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. An experiment on two islands near the southern Chinese province of Guangdong successfully reduced the female Asian Tiger Mosquito population—a highly invasive species that is the main source of bites and disease transmission—by up to 94 percent, reducing the number of reported human bites by 97 percent. In the study, female mosquitoes were sterilized with low level radiation and males infected with Wolbachia bacteria to inhibit reproduction. Both the female and male mosquitoes were then released during the peak breeding seasons in 2016 and 2017—resulting in a near-eradication of the entire female mosquito population on both islands. Given there are no effective vaccines or treatments for many mosquito-transmitted diseases, controlling the insect’s population is one of the most effective control methods, according to the International Journal of Science. A new project is being launched by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance to test whether using biometric data as part of medical records can help boost vaccination rates among children. The trial in Bangladesh and Tanzania will fingerprint up to 20,000 children between the ages of one and five in existing health projects, using biometric data to track their vaccinations and link them to computer medical records that will replace paper-based records. Simprints, a UK-based nonprofit specializing in biotechnology in the field of international development, will manage the fingerprint collection effort. Simprints’ technology has already been fine-tuned to work with fingerprints from individuals in poor and rural communities, who are more likely to have worn, scarred, or burned fingertips. Japanese company NEC Technologies is also partnering on the project to provide image processing and matching algorithms to complement Simprints’ scanning hardware and apps. The US$3 million project is due to begin later this year and conclude in 2020. Johnson & Johnson will test an experimental HIV vaccine—a mosaic-based preventative immunization that targets multiple strains of the virus—in the United States and Europe sometime this year. The company is also conducting a phase 2 clinical trial for the vaccine in Africa involving 2,600 women in five southern African countries. Initial results from the African trial are expected in 2021. This trial comes amid other recent advancements in HIV and AIDS research. In April, Johnson & Johnson and GlaxoSmithKline majority-owned ViiV Healthcare filed a new drug application with the US Food and Drug Administration for its once-a-month injection treatment for HIV, which in late-stage trials was shown to be as effective in controlling HIV as daily pills.

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, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) announced its two-drug HIV regimen, Dovato, was successful in suppressing the virus in patients over a 48-week period at the same level of a previous three-drug treatment in a late-stage trial. The study evaluated the effectiveness of Dovato in adults with HIV-1 virus, the most widespread strain, who switched to the regimen from at least a triple combination containing Gilead’s Vemlidy. GSK’s HIV drugs division, ViiV, noted that adults who used Dovato did not develop any resistance to the treatment. Dovato, a combination of dolutegravir and lamivudine, was approved in the United States in April for newly diagnosed patients. GSK already has a two-drug regimen, Juluca, on the market but only for HIV patients that have received prior treatment.Two experimental Ebola drugs, an antiviral called remdesivir and an antibody treatment called ZMapp, have been found to be effective in laboratory studies in treating the strain of the virus responsible for the deaths of more than 1,600 people in the current outbreak affecting the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). According to this new research performed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in laboratory studies both drugs inhibited the growth of the virus strain in human cells. These two treatments were developed based on strains from previous outbreaks, and this study was the first to test them on the strain causing the current outbreak, which researchers are calling the Ituri strain. According to the latest figures from the World Health Organization (WHO), the Ebola outbreak in DRC has killed 1,630 people with 2,418 total cases—making it the second biggest outbreak of the disease in history.On July 9, WHO published updates to two lists critical for global health: the twenty-first WHO Model List of Essential Medicines and the second WHO Model List of Essential Diagnostics (EDL). These lists help countries prioritize critical health products that should be available, accessible, and affordable in a health system. While the first EDL, developed in 2018, covered a limited number of priority diseases, the second list has expanded to include more noncommunicable and communicable diseases, consisting of 122 test categories. In this editorial piece, Dr. Madhukar Pai, Canada Research Chair of Epidemiology & Global Health at McGill University, explains what’s included in the EDL, what follow up is required by low-and middle-income countries (LMIC) to make the list work, and the LMIC investment required to develop the diagnostic tests and laboratories necessary to deliver on universal health coverage and to better detect outbreaks, antimicrobial resistance, and pandemics.

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. To help tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR), the Global Antibiotic Research & Development Partnership (GARDP) announced its new “5 BY 25” strategy to mobilize global stakeholders to raise the €500 million needed to develop five new antibiotic treatments by 2025. According to a GARDP press release, drug-resistant infections cause at least 700,000 deaths per year globally and addressing the growing threat of AMR will be key to achieving universal health coverage and the Sustainable Development Goals. With this new strategy, GARDP aims to develop and make accessible five new treatments that will focus on the priority pathogens identified by the World Health Organization, along with current unmet needs for diseases and key populations. In a promising step towards an HIV and AIDS cure, researchers from Temple University and the University of Nebraska have successfully eliminated HIV from the DNA of infected mice using genome editing technology combined with a slow-release virus suppression drug. Researchers administered a treatment called LASER ART, or long-acting, slow-effective release antiretroviral therapy to suppress HIV cells from replicating in mice engineered to produce human T cells susceptible to the virus. The research team deployed the drug across several weeks to target tissue in the spleen, bone marrow, and brain where latent HIV reservoirs are likely to occur. The researchers then used CRISPR-Cas9, a gene-editing tool, to eliminate the remaining infective cells from the subject’s DNA. By the end of the study, researchers had successfully eliminated HIV from nine out of 23 mice. Researchers are now working on a version of the study with primates. If their methods continue to be successful, clinical trials could follow as soon as next summer. Heads of state from the world’s largest economies committed to advance global health priorities at this year’s G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan. In the G20 Osaka Leaders’ Declaration, they included commitments to move towards universal health coverage by bolstering primary health care and access to medicines, promote healthy aging by preventing noncommunicable diseases, improve emergency preparedness and response, provide support for the countries affected by the current Ebola outbreak, and identify better models for antimicrobial drug research and development. Participants in the summit, described as the “premier forum for international economic cooperation,” includes leaders from 19 countries and the European Union, as well as guest countries and international organizations.