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Today, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) celebrates 50 years of leadership and expertise in addressing development challenges to improve lives across the globe. Since it launched, USAID has had a rich history of supporting global health, including research and development (R&D). Some of the major breakthroughs in global health that USAID has supported include: Oral rehydration therapy (ORT). ORT, a treatment for diarrhea, is credited with saving tens of millions of children’s lives. USAID began supporting this effort in the 1960s. In 1979, USAID made the largest donor investment in the establishment of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, where scientists continue to conduct important R&D to improve ORT. Eradicating smallpox. In 1966, USAID joined the global effort to eradicate smallpox, a contagious disease that killed more than 300 million people in the 20th century. In the same decade that USAID began to fight the disease, 10 million to 15 million people contracted the disease a year, and more than 2 million people died from it. Through investing in research that adapted the mechanics of US military jet injectors for application of the smallpox vaccine, USAID played a critical role in achieving global eradication of the disease. Funding research for tools to help women. USAID funded research to develop the Uniject™ injection system, a tool that delivers the drug oxytocin to help reduce excessive bleeding during the third stage of childbirth. More recently, USAID has ramped up efforts to combat HIV by funding research for microbicide gels, a tool that has the potential to help women protect themselves from the virus. Through investing in a groundbreaking trial held at the Centre for the AIDS Programme Research in South Africa (CAPRISA), USAID played a critical role in supporting the first proof-of-concept trial that showed a microbicide can protect women against HIV and herpes. USAID has helped save lives across the world through its strong support for global health R&D Photo: Wendy Stone/PATH USAID’s commitment to global health R&D remains strong today. In fact, USAID is a vital partner to many GHTC members. USAID and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) have been in a cooperative agreement since 2006 to accelerate the discovery of an AIDS vaccine. USAID also supports the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance) in its effort to develop better drugs to treat tuberculosis (TB). The agency also contributed significant funding to the Meningitis Vaccine Project (MVP)—a partnership between PATH and the World Health Organization—for its efforts to discover and deliver a new meningitis vaccine. USAID supported a comprehensive analysis of the economic costs of meningitis epidemics, aided efforts to improve meningitis surveillance, and helped to address regulatory issues. With this strong commitment from USAID, the future of global health R&D will undoubtedly hold many breakthroughs that have the potential to save millions of lives worldwide.

Don Joseph is Chief Operating Officer at BIO Ventures for Global Health (BVGH), a GHTC member, and wrote this blog post in conjunction with the launch of WIPO Re:Search, a new consortium where public and private sector organizations share valuable intellectual property (IP) and expertise with the global health research community to promote development of new drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics to treat neglected tropical diseases, malaria, and tuberculosis. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Tom Mboya Okeyo, ambassador from Kenya, recalled the old Chinese proverb in referring to the expensive, risk-filled, and time-consuming process of drug and vaccine development for neglected tropical diseases at last week’s Geneva launch for WIPO Re:Search, a new initiative administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization, or WIPO, and BIO Ventures for Global Health. WIPO Re:Search is an unprecedented initiative to share knowledge, expertise, and intellectual property. Its mission is simple: to accelerate the development of new drugs, diagnostics, and vaccines for the World Health Organization’s list of neglected tropical diseases, tuberculosis, and malaria by bringing the firepower normally devoted to commercial product research and development to neglected tropical disease research. The vehicle for doing so is a central database, publicly available and searchable, which describes knowledge, expertise, data, and resources being offered by a wide-ranging list of contributors for royalty-free research. Contributors have committed that any end products resulting will be sold royalty-free to end users in the world’s least developed countries, as defined by the United Nations. From the initial conversations between neglected tropical disease researchers and the contributors of resources, new partnerships—and research projects—are expected to emerge. Don Joseph of BVGH speaks about the new WIPO Re:Search initiative at a press conference at the UN. This project aims to fight neglected tropical diseases, malaria and tuberculosis by fostering collaboration between public and private sector organizations to promote the development of new drugs, vaccines and diagnostics. WIPO acts as secretariat of WIPO Re:Search, and BVGH will administer the Partnership Hub, a virtual meeting place where neglected tropical disease researchers can learn more about the knowledge, data, and resources being made available to them by means of a publicly available database (see www.wiporesearch.org). We at BVGH will answer questions, coordinate communications, and help researchers connect with their counterparts to help find the tools and resources they need to solve neglected tropical disease research problems. WIPO Re:Search was formed by eight of the world’s leading pharmaceutical or biotech companies (Alnylam, AstraZeneca, Eisai, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, Sanofi), in collaboration with government organizations (e.g., the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the Indian Medical Research Council, the Medical Research Council of South Africa, the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation of Brazil), non-governmental organizations, and other research institutions. WIPO Re:Search includes not only providers of knowledge assets, but neglected disease research institutions (the Sabin Vaccine Institute, the Center for World Health and Medicine, Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative, and others). Ambassador Okeyo recalled the Chinese proverb in deference to his fellow panelist, Margaret Chan, Director General of the World Health Organization. Dr. Chan clearly demonstrated her enthusiasm for the project—and her challenge to produce results—to those participating. The road is a long one, filled with risk, requiring additional resources and significant time and hard work. But the journey toward neglected tropical disease product development just took a significant step forward.

In this regular feature on Breakthroughs, Ashley Bennett, senior policy associate at the GHTC, provides an update on what’s currently happening with global health in Congress and an outlook for future legislative activity. The government continues to operate under the continuing resolution (CR) that cut 1.5% across the board to all government programs. At the same time, the Senate is starting the Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 appropriations process, debating several “minibus” bills that combine two or more appropriations accounts. With these minibus bills, the Senate aims to complete work on appropriations as close as possible to the Nov. 18 CR expiration date. Here are some details on two minibus bills that would fund the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID): The Senate recently considered a minibus bill that would fund the FDA, in addition to several other programs. The Senate debated this minibus bill last week, but could not agree to the funding levels before the Senate went into recess. This week, when the Senate is back in session, it will likely approve this measure. Also this week, the Senate will likely consider another minibus that combines State and Foreign Operations (SFOPS) with several other programs, including Energy. The SFOPS account provides funding to USAID. This package could be debated as early as Tuesday, Nov. 1, and amendments will be allowed during debate. The GHTC has heard that if it looks like there won’t be enough votes to approve the package by the end of this week, the bill will be pulled from the floor and the Senate will try again at a later date. As mentioned in the last What’s Ahead on the Hill, the Senate SFOPs funding levels for FY 2012 are roughly $5 billion higher than the House funding levels, but still about $3 billion below FY 2011 levels overall. As the SFOPs account is combined with the often controversial Energy account, the amount of amendments could lead to a lengthy debate. After the State and Foreign Operations minibus is debated, additional funding packages will still be needed to complete work on the Senate side for all of the appropriations accounts. Meanwhile on the House side, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), chair of the House Appropriations Committee, has suggested that he may consider adding accounts to the FDA minibus when it is approved by the Senate and moves to the House for negotiations. It is unclear at this point if this will actually be the case. You can find information on the FDA bill here.

In this regular feature on Breakthroughs, we highlight some of the most interesting reads in global health research from the past week. GHTC member Bio Ventures for Global Health has released a new report that analyzes the engagement of different players in global health drug and vaccine development. The world invested $630.4 million in tuberculosis research and development in 2010—less than one-third of the projected $2 billion annual investment needed to eliminate the disease as a public health threat by 2050—according to a new report. While spending rose slightly by two percent since 2009, it is the smallest year-on-year increase documented. Funding from the National Institutes of Health supported more than 432,000 jobs and generated more than $62.1 billion in economic activity last year. FSG and GBCHealth look at how pharmaceutical and medical device companies can create shared value in global health by addressing unmet health needs in low- and middle-income countries.