News

Danielle Doughman is a program manager for global health research and development (R&D) advocacy at Research!America, the nation's largest not-for-profit public education and advocacy alliance committed to making research to improve health a higher national priority. Research!America is a member of the GHTC. Yesterday in London, some of the biggest players in global health committed to a renewed and intensified focus on neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), a group of diseases affecting the world’s poorest people. One in six people, or 1.4 billion people around the world, has an NTD and one in three people is at risk. Though NTDs don’t always kill, they cause disabilities, making it difficult or impossible for children to attend school and for adults to work and support their families. The international, cross-sector meeting marked collaboration between governments, the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Bank, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, pharmaceutical companies, and global health nongovernmental organizations. It is also a historic pledge that brings new promise and hope to those affected and advances science and health for all. Sir Andrew Witty, CEO of GlaxoSmithKline, noted that the variety of different commitments across sectors demonstrates these collaborations want to “travel far” to end NTDs. “If you want to travel fast, travel alone. If you want to travel far, travel as a group,” he said, quoting an African proverb. Making the best use of existing tools to combat diseases will only get us part of the way. The collaboration's goals are achievable only with new tools—including drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics. Nine of the ten targeted NTDs require new investment in R&D. To take just one example, visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is almost always fatal if untreated, and there are approximately 500,000 cases each year, largely in South Asia and the horn of Africa. The cost of treatment plus loss of income due to one case of VL represents at least 50% of the average spent per family member per year. What’s worse, more than half of people who seek treatment must do so more than once to cure the disease. Available therapies are sometimes toxic or ineffective. New, more effective medicines are needed, at a lower cost and with fewer side effects. A consortium project led by the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative, in partnership with California-based OneWorld Health and TDR, WHO’s Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, aims to establish and implement new treatment modalities as successful tools to control and support the elimination of VL in most endemic regions of South Asia. California-based pharmaceutical company Gilead is investing in further research to reduce the cost of treatment. In addition to narrowing funding gaps, new licensing or collaboration agreements have opened up “libraries” of scientific knowledge and research compounds. As a result, one pharmaceutical company recently shared 300 compounds with a lab in Argentina to conduct research on Chagas, an NTD common in rural parts of Central and South America and sometimes found in poor parts of the United States. Something as ambitious as this takes commitment from the public, private, and philanthropic sectors, but the general public must become increasingly engaged as well. The names of diseases like visceral leishmaniasis don’t exactly roll off the tongue of those of us in developed countries, and fewer people could tell you why the condition is so devastating. To increase public awareness and advocacy of NTDs, the Sabin Vaccine Institute-based Global Network’s new END7 campaign aims to end seven of the most common NTDs as a public health threat by 2020. It’s going to take an increased effort on all our parts to make NTDs a thing of the past.

On Tuesday night, President Obama gave his annual State of the Union address to Congress. While the President was not as focused on using science to help the United States out-innovate the rest of the world as he was during last year’s State of the Union address, he did re-commit his administration to harnessing the strength of innovation to create an “America built to last.” Obama stressed the importance of basic research in the development of new health tools. He also urged Congress not to cut parts of the budget that will hurt the promise of science and technology: “Innovation also demands basic research. Today, the discoveries taking place in our federally-financed labs and universities could lead to new treatments that kill cancer cells but leave healthy ones untouched. New lightweight vests for cops and soldiers that can stop any bullet. Don’t gut these investments in our budget. Don’t let other countries win the race for the future. Support the same kind of research and innovation that led to the computer chip and the Internet; to new American jobs and new American industries.” President Obama called on Congress to support the work of entrepreneurs and researchers—through tax breaks and other financial incentives, in addition to funding. Much of the speech targeted improvements to domestic priorities such as American job creation, immigration policy reform, and finance industry management. However, it was clear that the President is seeking a renewal of American leadership around the world through engagement on international human rights and international business. Leadership in global health research and innovation will be a critical part of this effort. Recent global health R&D news–from the exciting preliminary results of a malaria vaccine to the startling news of a completely drug resistant TB strain–demonstrates the that the US should not halt or slow its support for R&D in the fight against global health challenges. President Obama stressed the importance of basic research in the development of new health tools during his State of the Union address on Tuesday evening. Photo: Evelyn Hockstein/PATH. This year is a pivotal one for US support of global health R&D for several reasons. These include changes at the Global Fund, the International AIDS Conference in Washington, DC, this summer, the roll-out of the new National Center for Advancing Translational Science at the National Institutes of Health, and additional research results from a number of important studies. All of these are mixed with looming budget sequestration cuts and a presidential election. President Obama’s speech made it clear that he will support the R&D programs that lead to cost-effective tools that can save lives. It is yet to be seen if Congress will follow suit. You can find a video of the speech, with accompanying charts here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/state-of-the-union-2012

Research!America, a member of the GHTC, recently conducted analyses across a select group of target states to measure the health and economic impact of global health research and development (R&D), highlighting its benefits for states across the nation and strengthening the evidence base for Congress' support of federal investments in global health R&D. Danielle Doughman, Program Manager, Global Health R&D Advocacy, wrote this blog post to share the organization’s findings in the state of California. This post is the first of a series in which Research!America will continue to profile various states from around the country. Global health research not only has the potential to save lives and prevent disabilities, it is good business. And Californians agree. A clear majority—58%—agree that global health research is important to the state’s economy, and 70% agree that Americans would be better off if the United States invests in global health research. The need for better drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics for diseases that disproportionately affect the poorest and most vulnerable—about one in six people around the world—has been well-documented on this blog. The diseases include ones we’ve all heard of, like HIV and AIDS, but also killers that receive less attention, such as pneumonia and diarrhea. As part of our examination into what the United States is doing to advance global health R&D and why our continued support of such work is crucial for the health and prosperity of our future, we will examine six US state case studies, starting with California. California’s world class universities, businesses, and nonprofits create a robust global health sector with significant impacts on job creation, tax revenue and health. 70% of Californians agree that Americans would be better off if the United States invests in global health research. Photo: Evelyn Hockstein/PATH In 2010, the state received $3.3 billion from the National Institutes of Health, the world’s largest funder of global health research, supporting more than 62,000 high-quality jobs in the state. Overall, the global health sector supported 350,000 jobs in California with $19.7 billion in wages in 2007, the most recent year for which data are available. There are many, many public, private, academic, and philanthropic partners doing notable work in California and fostering productive collaborations across the United States and around the world. Here are just two examples: The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative’s Neutralizing Antibodies Center in La Jolla experienced recent breakthroughs that could play a major role in ending the HIV pandemic. The discovery of powerful, broadly-neutralizing antibodies have significant implications for AIDS vaccine design. What’s more, the same strategies may be applied to the development of a universal flu vaccine, potentially eliminating the need for annual flu vaccinations. Between 1976 and 2006, estimates of flu-associated deaths in the United States range from a low of about 3,000 to a high of about 49,000 people, so a universal flu vaccine would help save lives here in the United States and around the world. Malaria kills 650,000 people each year and results in $12 billion in endemic countries' lost gross domestic product annually. An affordable treatment means more children live, attend school, and can contribute to society. South San Francisco’s OneWorld Health, the first non-profit pharmaceutical company in the United States, works on drug development for malaria and other diseases of the developing world. Just last year, Sanofi, in partnership with OneWorld, began production of semisynthetic artemisinin, a breakthrough compound that makes effective malaria treatment much more affordable for the 200 million people—mostly kids—who contract it each year. The drug was developed at OneWorld with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

In this regular feature onBreakthroughs, we’ll highlight some of the most interesting reads in global health research from the past week. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton highlighted the importance of research and product development in the fight against AIDS. She declared that creating an AIDS-free generation is a policy priority for the United States. A new report from GHTC member the Treatment Action Group (TAG) shows funding for TB research and development is falling, but GHTC member the TB Alliance and several organizations are collaborating to accelerate development of drugs to fight the disease. The top innovators in medical research spent three days exploring the partnerships and alliances that could help speed medical progress at the Partnering for Cures meeting. An editorial in The Minnesota Daily urges Congress to preserve foreign aid funding as it has helped save lives and improve the quality of life for people around the world. Two GHTC members, the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative and One World Health, are among the organizations forming a partnership to launch a project that will fight visceral leishmaniasis. The Obama Administration is expanding the Global Health Initiative to include another 21 countries, bringing the total amount of focus countries to 29.