Who we are
Unitaid saves lives by making new health products available and affordable for people in low- and middle-income countries. We identify innovative treatments, tests and tools, help tackle the market barriers that are holding them back, and get them to the people who need them most – fast.
Since we were created in 2006, we have unlocked access to more than 100 groundbreaking health products, from the latest HIV treatments to the first-ever medicines for children with HIV and tuberculosis (TB) to next-generation mosquito nets to protect families from malaria. Every year, more than 170 million people in low- and middle-income countries benefit from the treatments, tests and tools we’ve helped roll out.
What we do
We focus on addressing some of the world’s biggest health challenges: HIV, TB and malaria; women’s and children’s health; and pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. We also invest in cross-cutting areas that strengthen health systems, including improving access to medical oxygen, increasing regional and domestic manufacturing of health products, addressing the health impacts of climate change, and contributing to the global target of universal health coverage.
We are also a key player in global health alliances. Together with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and Wellcome, we co-led the Therapeutics Pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator, a groundbreaking partnership to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments. We also convened the Oxygen Emergency Taskforce to increase supply and availability to lifesaving medical oxygen during the pandemic. In 2023, we joined more than 20 leading health partners and representatives from communities to launch the Global Oxygen Alliance (GO2AL), which we co-chair with the Global Fund, to continue this critical work to boost access to medical oxygen.
How we work
We work with a broad range of partners, starting with the countries and affected communities who identify challenges and potential solutions, and the researchers and companies creating innovative new products. Through innovative financing solutions like volume guarantees, we lower prices for those products and help get them to market and to those who need them most.
Together with implementing partners, we introduce these health products to low- and middle-income countries while overcoming the various barriers that people may face in being able to access them. Then we collaborate with governments and leading global health organizations like the Global Fund and the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to take those products and best practices to scale.
Reduced prices and greater efficiencies that come with the products we deliver are projected to generate more than US$8 billion in savings by 2030 – much-needed funding that can be reinvested elsewhere.
Groundbreaking solutions
We have helped bring to market more than 100 of the most groundbreaking health products since our creation in 2006, then worked with partners to bring them to scale worldwide, including:
- All first-line medicines for HIV, including dolutegravir, the most effective and affordable treatment to date
- Diagnostic testing machines for TB, which can be adapted to test for other pathogens – including COVID-19
- HIV self-tests, a critical tool to increase diagnosis and treatment of people with HIV
- Easy-to-use thermal ablation devices to treat pre-cancerous cells to prevent cervical cancer
- Seasonal malaria chemoprevention, a preventative treatment that now protects 45 million children a year
Without our interventions, millions more people would be at risk of illness or death from preventable and treatable diseases.
How we’re funded
Founded in 2006 by Brazil, Chile, France, Norway and the United Kingdom and hosted by the World Health Organization, our current donors have grown to include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Japan, the Republic of Korea and Spain. Canada, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Wellcome provided additional funding for our COVID-19 response.