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The Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC) yesterday honored Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), and Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA) for their leadership in championing global health research and development (R&D) at its 2024 Innovating for Impact Awards, an annual initiative celebrating US policymakers and partnerships catalyzing global health innovation. GHTC also recognized the partners that developed and are accelerating global access to the novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2)—a next-generation oral polio vaccine that is accelerating global polio eradication efforts—for their efforts to advance this groundbreaking new product.Senator Booker, who is chairman of the Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health Policy, was honored with a Congressional Champion Award for his leadership in introducing the Supporting Innovative Global Health Technologies (SIGHT) Act to establish a new disease-agnostic R&D program at the US Agency for International Development (USAID), as well as his support of numerous other bills to bolster R&D for neglected diseases, antimicrobial resistance, and infectious disease monitoring. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, in the same way that infectious disease anywhere is a threat to the justice, the safety, the peace, the health of all people everywhere,” Senator Booker said in accepting the award. GHTC also recognized Senator Collins, who is Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee and a member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, with a Congressional Champion Award for the pivotal role she has played in protecting and expanding funding for global health research at the National Institutes of Health and other key US agencies, as well as her support of critical bills to advance global health research, including the Reach Every Mother and Child Act to advance innovative tools to end preventable child and maternal deaths. “As a leader of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I’ve long supported strong funding for global health programs…We have proven that compassionate, targeted foreign aid, in conjunction with private philanthropy, can save lives and improve health for millions of people all around the world,” Senator Collins stated in prerecorded acceptance remarks. Additionally, Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan was celebrated with a Congressional Champion Award for her leadership in introducing the SIGHT Act to supercharge health innovation at USAID, as well as her co-sponsorship of other notable legislation to strengthen preparedness and response to health emergencies, including the Global Health Security and Global Pandemic Prevention and Biosecurity Acts. “Disease does not respect boundaries, and health emergencies are clearly continuing…so that’s the exact reason…that I’m supporting and introducing the Supporting Innovative Global Health Technologies Act,” Congresswoman Houlahan remarked in her acceptance speech. “It’s important that we work with our partners across government, across the nonprofit world, and of course, across the world of business…to make sure that we address issues such as disease,” she noted. Finally, GHTC presented the Partnership Award to Dr. John Konz, Global Head of Viral Diseases at PATH’s Center for Vaccine Innovation and Access,  who accepted the award on behalf of the many partners who contributed to the development and global rollout of nOPV2. This innovative vaccine has been engineered to be less likely than the original oral polio vaccine to cause vaccine-derived polio cases, and it protects against the type 2 strain of polio virus, which causes the majority of these cases. Though these cases are extremely rare, because the world has achieved such stunning success in reducing polio, these variant cases today outnumber wild polio cases, posing a significant barrier to eradication.nOPV2 was advanced from idea to impact thanks to a constellation of global partners. These include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Bio Farma; Cevaxin; the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Fighting Infectious Diseases in Emerging Countries; the US Food and Drug Administration; icddr,b;   Intravacc; the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine’s Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia; the United Kingdom’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency; UNICEF; the University of Antwerp; the University of California, San Francisco; the World Health Organization (WHO); and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. In 2020, nOPV2 became the first-ever vaccine to be authorized for emergency use by WHO, and since then, more than a billion doses have been delivered to children in high-risk settings—bringing us closer to a polio-free world.“It’s been a privilege for PATH to lead and facilitate this project over the past nine years, and it’s an honor to accept this award on behalf of the people and the organizations that made this vaccine a reality,” said Dr. Konz. “It’s truly a story of 70 years of investments and innovation.”  “GHTC is thrilled to honor Senator Booker, Senator Collins, Congresswoman Houlahan, and the partners who advanced nOPV2 with our Innovating for Impact Awards,” said Dr. Kristie Mikus. “Strong political will and smart partnerships are key to delivering next-generation cures and vaccines to fight the world’s deadliest health threats. We’re delighted to recognize the outstanding work of our honorees who are making progress possible.”Now in its eighth year, the Innovating for Impact Awards celebrate US commitment to global health R&D and honor the multisector partnerships and policymakers helping to transform breakthrough scientific research into lifesaving technologies for unmet global health challenges. Learn more about the initiative and past honorees.View photos from the event on Flickr and Facebook.

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, The New England Journal of Medicine published the full results of the PURPOSE 2 trial testing Gilead Science’s twice-yearly lenacapavir shot for HIV prevention, finding that it was extremely effective in a broad and geographically diverse range of cisgender men and gender-diverse people. These results follow those of the first PURPOSE trial published earlier this year, which found that the drug was 100 percent effective as a prevention option in a study of women and adolescent girls. Lenacapavir is already approved and available in several countries, including the United States, as an HIV treatment option. With additional approvals as an HIV prevention option, the shot could be a game-changer for many marginalized communities that face the highest risk of HIV infection.A recent study found that the investigational drug quabodepistat in combination with delamanid and bedaquiline demonstrated safety and efficacy as a treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). TB treatment has historically been months long and difficult to tolerate, leading to discontinued treatment courses that raise the risk of the emergence of drug resistance. This combination treatment could potentially help fill the gap for safer, shorter regimens that cause fewer side effects. Further large-scale and long-term trials will be needed to validate these findings before this treatment combination can be available to the communities that face the highest burden of TB.Last week, the US Department of Health and Human Services announced nearly $27 million to support the rapid development and scale-up of manufacturing capacity for diagnostic tests to address future biologic threats through the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority consortium. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the gap in the United States' capacity to quickly develop, validate, produce, and roll out diagnostic tests to curb the spread of an infectious disease outbreak. While the funding will specifically support the development of tests to detect Burkholderia pseudomallei, the bacterium that causes melioidosis, and Marburg virus, the aim is to advance diagnostics platforms that can be leveraged to quickly produce tests for other threats as they emerge.

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 study published last week tested a promising new malaria vaccination strategy that aims to boost immunity through bites from mosquitoes carrying a genetically engineered version of the malaria parasite, which could pave the way for improved malaria vaccines. There are two approved vaccines for malaria, but they are only about 75 percent effective and require booster shots. In a trial, researchers exposed participants to bites from mosquitoes that had a version of the malaria parasite that was genetically modified to stop developing after delivery into a human, finding that nearly 90 percent of participants exposed to the modified parasites avoided contracting the disease after being bitten. The next step will be a larger trial to confirm this strategy as a viable candidate to advance malaria control efforts.A new study found that vaccines for diarrhea could reduce bacteria-associated diarrhea and antibiotic use among young children in low- and middle-income countries, which could also help reduce the emergence of antimicrobial resistance due to antibiotic overuse in low-resource settings where cases of diarrheal disease are most common. The research team used data from a previously published study exploring enteric infections and diarrheal illness in children in low- and middle-income countries and generated simulations to estimate the hypothetical impact of nine vaccine scenarios, including six single-pathogen vaccines and three combination vaccines. They found that, compared to the other single-pathogen vaccines, a vaccine against Shigella could cause the greatest reduction in antibiotic courses, and an adenovirus-norovirus-rotavirus vaccine could cause the greatest reductions in antibiotic use compared to the other combination vaccines.Last week, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) announced $1.46 million in funding for PATH to develop antibody reagents for developing vaccines against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS. Antibody reagents are critical for measuring and analyzing a vaccine’s potency and ability to induce an immune response. PATH will lead efforts to develop and test reagents, as well as collaborate with the Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Development to select and scale up a SARS-CoV-1-specific antibody to ensure these reagents are available globally, particularly in low and middle-income countries. The project aims to strengthen global health security by allowing researchers and manufacturers the tools to develop and scale up vaccines quickly in the face of an outbreak or new variant.

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 study published last week and presented at the American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene’s (ASTMH’s) annual meeting found that the malaria parasite is acquiring partial resistance to artemisinin, a key drug used to treat children with severe malaria, meaning that infection takes longer to clear and is not always being completely cleared by the drug. The researchers found partial resistance to the drug in 11 of the 100 children treated in the study, with 10 patients “cured” of severe malaria having a resurgence of the same strain within a month of the original infection, implying that the first treatment did not fully eliminate the parasite. More studies are needed to determine how widespread artemisinin resistance is in Africa. Still, the findings underscore the need for novel or alternative drugs to be used in the treatment of severe malariaThe US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has awarded Alveo Technologies a contract to develop a molecular assay to detect and differentiate the H5 subtype of avian influenza A from seasonable influenza A and B viruses in humans, as the ongoing spread of H5N1 in animals across the United States raises concerns about a new pandemic as regular flu season looms. Currently, only CDC and US state and jurisdictional public health labs have access to CDC’s molecular test to detect the H5 strain of influenza A, which could lead to delays in diagnosis or treatment if we start to see transmission between humans. Decentralized testing capabilities at the point of care will be needed to ensure any spread between humans is detected and controlled quickly to avoid another pandemic, as well as to reduce the burden on centralized laboratories.  Last week, the endTB consortium announced the completion of the endTB-Q trial, the first Phase 3 randomized controlled trial to exclusively enroll people with pre-extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (pre-XDR-TB), with preliminary results demonstrating that a shorter, less toxic treatment strategy of four drugs achieved high cure rates overall, especially in those with non-severe cases of TB disease. Pre-XDR-TB has historically been treated with toxic regimens that last up to two years, are hard to tolerate, and are not very effective. This study tested a personalized medicine strategy, with disease severity and early treatment response used to decide between a six- or nine-month treatment regimen. The study included participants from India, Kazakhstan, Lesotho, Pakistan, Peru, and Vietnam.