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GHTC submitted testimony on fiscal year 2025 (FY25) appropriations to the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (LHHS), urging robust funding for the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, as well as to the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs (SFOPS), urging robust funding for the US Agency for International Development, including funding for a Supporting Innovative Global Health Technologies Fund.

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 Health Innovative Technology (GHIT) Fund awarded a two-year grant to the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) and its partner Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation to continue lead optimization work on a novel compound to target the Trypanosoma cruzi parasite that causes Chagas disease, a neglected parasitic disease that affects an estimated 6 million people globally every year. Current treatments for Chagas, which were developed decades ago, need to be administered for eight weeks, can have serious and potentially toxic side effects, and have not been proven effective in people with severe chronic symptoms. The partners hope their work will lead to preclinical development candidate compounds and, eventually, a new medicine for Chagas disease that is safe and effective for all patients, including pregnant individuals.Researchers have developed an experimental vaccine that has the potential to protect against a broad range of coronaviruses, including known and as-of-yet-unknown varieties. The experimental vaccine was made by taking harmless proteins shared across different coronaviruses and attaching them to minuscule nanoparticles that are then injected to prime the body’s immune system to broadly target both known and unknown viruses in the same family. The vaccine induced a broad immune response to coronaviruses in mice, including to the pathogen that caused the 2003 Sars outbreak, even though proteins from that virus were not added to the vaccine. If proven safe and effective in humans, this and other proactive vaccines designed to target separate pathogens could be stockpiled by countries along with clear plans to quickly scale up production if a new pandemic-potential pathogen emerges. The universal vaccine can be made in existing facilities for microbial fermentation, and the researchers are already working with industrial partners on how to scale up production. There would need to be new processes designed with medical regulators before approval because there are no current procedures for the regulation of proactive vaccinology.Last Monday, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority announced the launch of the next generation of its accelerator network, which will include a diagnostics and medical devices program and a therapeutics hub. The former will be called the International Consortium for Research, Engineering, Acceleration of Technology Excellence and will support the development and acceleration of new diagnostics and medical devices aimed at improving health security. Along with three more hubs expected to be announced later this year, these hubs will create a global network to foster the growth of the health security innovation ecosystem, including support across the entire process, from development and evaluation to validation and commercialization of new technologies.

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. A team of scientists at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine has discovered a new snakebite treatment that can prevent the devastating skin and muscle damage caused by African spitting cobra venom, which can lead to permanent injuries and disfigurements. There are currently no effective treatments for addressing severe bites caused by venom from the spitting cobra, which is responsible for a substantial portion of snakebites in Africa. The scientists found that repurposing the small molecule drug varespladib to target one of the two major toxins in the venom was effective, even when delivered up to an hour after the bite, and the drug also provided protection from venom-induced muscle toxicity.Newly shared research found that a dose-sparing mpox vaccine approach, which was used during the 2022 mpox outbreak in the United States as global vaccine supplies were stretched, is safe and effective. The study tested an intradermal mpox vaccination regimen in adults using the Jynneos vaccine containing either one-fifth or one-tenth the standard dose, finding the former was generated a comparable antibody response to the standard vaccine regimen. These findings underscore real-world data that have shown similar effectiveness for this dose-sparing intradermal regimen and the standard subcutaneous regimen. The new findings are also timely as a widespread mpox outbreak continues in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.Last week, Kephera Diagnostics announced that it received a two-year $606,498 grant from the US National Institutes of Health to help fund the development of a point-of-care test for congenitally transmitted (or mother-to-child transmitted) Chagas disease, which is believed to be the primary transmission method of the disease in the United States. The company will use the funding to develop a point-of-care blood test that can be used to diagnose infection at the point of delivery by measuring the levels of the antibodies that are believed to be the first to appear in the blood in response to infection and can be differentiated from maternal antibodies. Congenital Chagas can be treated with two drugs that are approved for pediatric use, but because the disease is often asymptomatic in newborns, it can resemble the symptoms of other infections and be hard to correctly diagnose.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide feedback on agenda items that will be tackled during this year’s World Health Assembly. GHTC urges US policymakers to prioritize the following actions to strengthen research and development (R&D) to address these urgent health challenges: On antimicrobial resistance (AMR), it is vital to bolster investments and incentives for R&D for new antimicrobials and other tools to fight AMR and to improve global surveillance and laboratory capacity. Innovations should be developed with the goal of promoting broad accessibility, including for vulnerable populations and those in low-resource settings. The United States should work with member states to support the resolution tabled under this agenda item and call for the creation of a global AMR laboratory network to strengthen diagnostic capacity. In advance of this year’s United Nations High-Level Meeting on AMR, we also urge the United States to push the relevant United Nations agencies to hold an open, inclusive consultative process to define global AMR priorities. On maternal and child health, we welcome the draft resolution and its proposed language calling for increased R&D of health tools to address the specific medical needs of women and children, which are often neglected. We urge the United States to support the ongoing work of the Global Accelerator for Paediatric Formulations Network, or GAP-f, including prioritizing R&D for priority products on the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) Paediatric Antiretroviral Drug Optimization list. For pregnant women, we need to speed up and scale up access to preventive tools and treatments and include pregnant and lactating women in research and clinical trials to improve data quality and availability of therapeutic options. On tuberculosis (TB) and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), we urge the United States to work with member states to substantially increase investments in R&D. To meet the goals of the Global Strategy for Tuberculosis Research and Innovation, member states must increase domestic investments in TB R&D in line with fair share targets and supercharge research efforts to develop novel vaccines, point-of-care diagnostics, and improved therapies while also ensuring tools are appropriate for all populations, including pregnant people and children. In implementing research efforts to support the NTD roadmap, member states and WHO should position impacted countries to lead in R&D priority-setting, promote South-South collaboration models, and consider the growing impact of climate change. For both TB and NTD innovations, the United States should work with WHO’s divisions on Science and Access to Medicines and Health Products, as well as member states to consider ways to better align the prequalification and regulatory approval processes to accelerate access to vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics.