Annual report: Unitaid pushes the boundaries of global health innovation

Geneva – Unitaid is pleased to present its latest annual report, which shows the organization deepening and diversifying its work as a conduit, testing ground and refiner of the best global health ideas.

Unitaid’s portfolio reached US$ 1.3 billion in 2019, more than doubling its value in five years. The number of grants rose from 28 in 2014 to a record 48 grants.

“Every hard-earned milestone shows we can transform lives, in record time, by pooling the expertise of the right partners,” Executive Director Lelio Marmora said. “As we enter exciting new areas, we will continue convening governments, industry, international organizations and civil society to support a more strategic, coherent response.”

The number of organizations implementing Unitaid grants continued to climb, with more partners than ever based in the low- and middle-income countries Unitaid serves.

The organization is also cultivating novel kinds of partnerships that infuse its work with fresh ideas and resources. Unitaid’s new relationship with MTV Staying Alive Foundation, for example, is raising awareness of HIV self-testing, prevention and treatment through the popular African television series MTV Shuga. 

Recent work has built on Unitaid’s accomplishments in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of HIV/AIDS and its co-infections—and tuberculosis and malaria.

New projects focus on averting cervical cancer, a major cause of death for women living with HIV, and fighting malaria with new ways to control mosquitoes.

The past year also witnessed Unitaid’s push into new approaches to bring down the unacceptable, long-static death toll—about 1 million people a year—from diseases that often strike those with advanced HIV disease.

Many Unitaid projects support the fight against superbugs—microbes that are resistant to medicines—as well as malaria-carrying mosquitoes that can no longer be killed by common insecticides.

Covering 2018 to the present, this year’s report uses a colorful, interactive new style to help readers cut quickly to the core of Unitaid’s work.

 

The Hummingbird. Unitaid News – June 2019

Unitaid News_June 2019

Unitaid’s Board welcomes new leadership and acknowledges strong achievements

Seoul – The Unitaid Executive Board elected a new leadership, reflected on its midterm strategy review and discussed ways to increase impact until the end of its strategy in 2021 and beyond.

The Board’s 32nd meeting opened with remarks from Korean Vice-Minister Kim Ganglip of the Ministry of Health and Welfare and Deputy Minister for Multilateral and Global Affairs Kang Jeong-sik of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

The Board thanked the outgoing Board Chair Ambassador Marta Maurás Pérez and Vice-Chair Ms. Sarah Boulton for their strategic guidance over the past years and elected its new leadership. The new Chair Ms. Marisol Touraine, former French Minister of Social Affairs, Health and Women’s Rights will lead Unitaid’s Board through an exciting new period. “The key to Unitaid’s future lies in facing up to new challenges in global health, with confidence in our capacity to rally partners around shared goals,” said Ms. Touraine. The Board also welcomed Ambassador Maria Louisa Escorel De Moraes as its new Vice-Chair. Ambassador Escorel is the Deputy Permanent Representative of Brazil to the UN and other international organizations in Geneva.

Adopting the midterm review of Unitaid’s 2017-2021 strategy, the board acknowledged that Unitaid is on track towards its mission to maximize the effectiveness of the global health response by catalyzing equitable access to better health products. The review confirmed that Unitaid’s investments support highly innovative health products such as medicines and diagnostic tools, which can save lives of millions of people and create greater impact for the global health response.

“Unitaid’s portfolio is robust and well aligned to global health priorities. Unitaid focuses on bringing highly effective innovations to those in need, which is critical to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals,” Executive Director Lelio Marmora said.

The next Board meeting will take place in Geneva on 20-21 November.

Read the Executive Board’s Resolutions and Minutes 

Read the Executive Board’s e-Resolutions

UNICEF and Unitaid join forces to improve the health of children, adolescents and mothers

Geneva – Unitaid and UNICEF will collaborate to save the lives of more children, adolescents and mothers, an agreement formalized by a memorandum of understanding signed today.

With decades of experience fighting the biggest diseases threatening children under five, adolescent girls and young women, the newly signed memorandum will align the complementary efforts of the organizations to end malaria, pneumonia, HIV, tuberculosis and cervical cancer, to expand access to innovative point-of-care diagnostics, and to improve fever management in children.

“Unitaid and UNICEF have worked together on a number of lifesaving projects. Formalizing our collaboration will make our response stronger, faster and more effective,” Unitaid Executive Director Lelio Marmora said. 

Marmora and Fore signed the agreement. 

“Partnership and innovation have been the hallmark of the UNICEF-Unitaid partnership over many years. This new memorandum builds on this legacy, bringing together our resources, expertise and products to improve health outcomes in the communities–and for the children–who need it most,” UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta H. Fore said.

By teaming up in the fight against major disease killers in children, adolescents and mothers, Unitaid and UNICEF will work towards the Sustainable Development Goals and universal health coverage for a better tomorrow.

Cervical cancer. Screening and treatment of pre-cancerous lesions for secondary prevention of cervical cancer

Five facts about cervical cancer and how Unitaid is battling the disease

Q&A

  • What is cervical cancer?

Cervical cancer is a common cancer in women, with about 570,000 new cases in 2018 and more than 311,000 deaths—85 percent of them in less-developed countries. Cervical cancer is caused by human papillomavirus (HPV), an extremely common sexually transmitted infection. While most HPV infections clear up on their own, and precancerous lesions resolve, some infections progress to invasive cancer.

  • What are the risk factors for cervical cancer?

Cervical cancer can develop in just 5-10 years in women with weakened immune systems, such as those living with HIV, compared to 15-20 years in women with normal immunity. Co-infection with other sexually transmitted infections like herpes simplex, chlamydia and gonorrhea also predisposes women to cervical cancer. Other risk factors include smoking, having many babies and bearing children at an early age.

  •  Why is Unitaid targeting cervical cancer?

Cervical cancer is one of the most preventable and curable cancers, if diagnosed early and managed effectively. The number of deaths due to this disease have increased by 17% since 2012. If we do not act, the death toll will rise by almost 50% by 2040. Women living in lower income countries are more than eight times more likely to develop cervical cancer than those in high-income countries. Women living with HIV are four times more likely to develop cervical cancer once infected with HPV.

Screening and treatment of precancerous lesions are the norm and have proved successful in high-income countries. However, high costs, ineffective screening methods and treatment devices that are hard to use in remote settings have held back progress.

Unitaid’s upcoming investments seek to reduce cervical cancer illness and death by expanding access to better tests and treatments that are affordable, effective and handy.

  • What will Unitaid’s first investment in cervical cancer focus on?

Unitaid’s first project in cervical cancer will be led by Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI). The US$ 33 million initiative will be implemented in India, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and Zambia.

Aiming to develop US$ 1 screen-and-treat solution for cervical cancer, the project will pioneer a common cellphone application using artificial intelligence that can detect signs of cancer with more than 90% accuracy. The initiative will also expand access to affordable and portable treatment devices for precancerous lesions.

  • How does Unitaid plan to contribute to global targets for cervical cancer elimination?

Unitaid’s innovations are designed to be scaled up by partners such as the Global Fund and PEPFAR. If broadly adopted, the innovations could save the lives of hundreds of thousands of women, including those living with HIV, and empower them to lead healthy and productive lives.

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Unitaid and CHAI sign grant to prevent cervical cancer deaths

Geneva – Unitaid and Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) today signed an innovative grant that will bring artificial intelligence and affordable treatment and screening to the fight against cervical cancer, a disease that kills a woman every two minutes and disproportionately affects low-resource countries and women living with HIV.

With the aim of achieving US$ 1 screen-and-treat solutions, the $33 million project will deploy improved screening tools, introduce new portable devices for treatment and advance easy-to-use artificial intelligence-based tools for screening of precancerous lesions. Precancerous lesions can progress to life-threatening cervical cancer if left untreated.

Starting in July, the 2.5-year project will be implemented in India, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and Zambia.

“Early detection of cervical cancer is key to saving lives. The use of artificial intelligence in cervical cancer screening will be a game-changer, and we are proud to be pioneering it,” Unitaid Executive Director Lelio Marmora said. “Unitaid is delighted to join forces with CHAI in reducing the world’s cervical cancer death toll.”

Marmora and CHAI CEO Ira C. Magaziner signed the grant Sunday during the high-level discussion “How to halve HIV deaths”.

“By investing in innovative screening methods and portable treatment devices for cervical pre-cancers, CHAI’s collaboration with Unitaid will not only help overcome one of the most preventable and treatable cancers, but also empower hundreds of thousands of women to lead healthier lives,” Magaziner said.

Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women. It affects over half a million women each year and kills more than a quarter of a million. Virtually all cervical cancers are caused by infection with human papillomavirus (HPV), a very common sexually-transmitted infection.

Women in low- and middle-income countries are six times more likely to develop cervical cancer than women in high-income countries. Nine out of ten deaths occur outside of high-income countries.

Women living with HIV have four to ten times greater chance of developing cervical cancer when infected with HPV than HIV-negative women, making cervical cancer a major threat to the health of women living with HIV.

In high-income countries, several strategies have proved successful in decreasing the cervical cancer burden, including early detection and treatment of precancerous lesions. In remote settings, however, progress has been held back by high costs, ineffective screening methods and ill-adapted treatment devices. A fresh approach is needed in low- and middle-income countries.

By improving access to affordable, high-quality screening and treatment for cervical cancer, the grant paves way for widespread scale-up and builds on Unitaid’s growing investment in management of HIV co-infections. The new generation of tools complements other cervical cancer control approaches, such as HPV vaccination, contributing to the WHO’s targets for elimination of cervical cancer.

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Patents and licenses on antiretrovirals: a snapshot