Unitaid funding sees launch of world’s first long-acting medicines centre at University of Liverpool

Geneva – Efforts to revolutionise treatments for debilitating infectious diseases have been amplified today with the launch of a new research centre at the University of Liverpool.

Established as part of a US$40 million international research consortium, primarily funded by Unitaid, the University of Liverpool’s Centre of Excellence for Long-acting Therapeutics (CELT) will be the first of its kind in the world.

By repurposing existing medicines into slow-release formulations, where drug effectiveness can be sustained over several months, ‘long-acting’ technology has already been successfully implemented in the fields of contraception and schizophrenia.

It now has the potential to improve the outcomes for treatment and prevention of deadly diseases such as HIV, malaria, Hepatitis C and tuberculosis, which particularly impact low- and middle-income countries.

Current treatment courses for these conditions have often resulted in poor outcomes in low-resource environments, as those living with diseases struggle with regimens that can involve taking dozens of tablets every day and rely on regular access to healthcare settings.

CELT’s mission is to broaden knowledge of long-acting medicines and disseminate key research, with the aim of revolutionising how these devastating diseases are treated, particularly in countries where access to healthcare is challenging.

The work will be conducted out of two state-of-the-art laboratories at the University of Liverpool, where the development of long-acting formulations for malaria and TB prevention, as well as a single-injection cure for hepatitis C, is already under way as part of the Unitaid-funded LONGEVITY project. In the case of malaria prevention, for example, the aim is to cover an individual for the entire malaria season with just one injection.

Meanwhile, by facilitating collaboration between scientists from the fields of pharmacology and materials chemistry, as well as global partners, CELT will ensure that the long-acting medicines are carefully designed with the specific needs of affected communities in mind.

Other projects focus on helping researchers understand better the key success factors for oral, injectable and implantable long-acting approaches.

Unitaid’s Executive Director Dr Philippe Duneton said: “Decades ago, long-acting products revolutionised fields such as schizophrenia and contraception. Today, our goal is to apply similar innovation to bolster global efforts to tackle – and even eliminate – major diseases affecting low- and middle-income countries, including HIV/AIDS. The pipeline of new long-acting products is promising. As a funder of catalytic health interventions, we are excited and inspired to be supporting the University of Liverpool, and other partners, that are blazing a trail in that regard.”

Co-director of CELT, Professor Andrew Owen, said: “Long-acting drug delivery promises to transform patient management, with huge potential impact for treatment and prevention of infectious diseases. Benefits for efficacy flow from overcoming issues associated with patients sometimes not taking their medication, which may also help reduce emergence of antimicrobial resistance. CELT harnesses the power of local, national and international collaboration to accelerate understanding of the medicines of the future.”

Media contact: Charlotte Baker | +44 7904 460 181 | bakerc@unitaid.who.int

Annual report: Advancing global health in the age of COVID-19

Geneva – Unitaid is delighted to present its latest annual report, which charts the continuation of the organisation’s groundbreaking work, despite the immense challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In this interactive report of our work from July 2019 to July 2020, you will find the reflections of our Executive Board Chair Marisol Touraine on the impact of COVID-19 on progress in HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB, and the thoughts of Executive Director Philippe Duneton on the role of Unitaid in defeating the pandemic.

COVID-19 presents a complex global health challenge, and Unitaid’s flexible model has enabled us to move quickly to make best use of existing partnerships and projects to aid the fight against the pandemic in low and middle-income countries.

In 2020, we joined global health actors and private sector partners in the Access to COVID Tools Accelerator to push forward the development, production and access to new COVID-19 diagnostics, treatments and vaccines. Unitaid co-convenes the Therapeutics Partnership, together with the Wellcome Trust, and co-leads the market-preparedness work stream in the Diagnostics Partnership.

Against this backdrop, we have continued to support crucial innovations in the fields of cervical cancer, HIV self-testing, anti-malaria nets and TB prevention, highlights of an impressive and expanding portfolio that aims to accelerate innovation to tackle the three diseases and co-infections. Our new agility mechanism, UnitaidExplore, was also launched in early 2020.

As we look to 2021 and beyond, the achievements outlined in this report reflect a great deal of progress despite the difficulties of 2020, and sets out a clear pathway for our work as an organisation.

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Unitaid reaffirms its support to the Medicines Patent Pool, a key player for equitable access to life-saving medicines

Geneva – Through the approval of a new $34.3 million grant for the next five years to the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP), Unitaid has reinforced its historic commitment to equitable access to affordable, quality medicines for all.

Founded by Unitaid 10 years ago, MPP has established itself as a key player in global health through facilitating rapid access to medicines for people affected by HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and hepatitis C in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Since its inception, MPP’s work with pharmaceutical manufacturers and partners has contributed to supplying over 15 billion doses of quality generic treatments for HIV and hepatitis C in LMICs.

Over the past six years, as part of a coalition of partners including the World Health Organization (WHO), the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, PEPFAR, Unitaid, and countries such as South Africa and civil society, MPP has facilitated the development, scale-up, and roll-out of dolutegravir (DTG) and the DTG combination regimen TLD (tenofovir/lamivudine/dolutegravir). TLD is a more efficient fixed-dose combination that contributes to decreasing the pill burden and increasing adherence to treatment for people living with HIV.

Joint efforts have contributed to making these life-saving drugs available at historically low prices. Countries are now procuring DTG for less than US$ 70 per person, per year — bringing substantial savings that can be reinvested in other areas. Current annual savings are enough to procure treatment for an additional 5 million people every year.

The WHO recommends DTG-based treatment as the preferred first- and second-line regimen for people living with HIV. MPP has also contributed to the development and distribution of different pediatric formulations that are better suited to children, and has played a critical role in enabling affordable access to hepatitis C treatments in many LMICs.

This new grant, that covers the period 2021-2025, will enable MPP to further its work centered around negotiating voluntary licenses and expanding production capacities for HIV, tuberculosis and hepatitis C medicines in order to make them more widely available and affordable for those who need it. The project also includes extending MPP’s scope to long-acting therapeutics, working alongside all Unitaid-funded long-acting projects with the objective to bring simplified treatments to patients and increase adherence. A further area of work targets voluntary licensing of patented medicines on the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines.

“As the world is facing a major pandemic in its history, much can be learned from the positive experience and successes of the MPP in contributing to making treatments available and affordable for those who need them the most,” said Marisol Touraine, Chair of the Unitaid Executive Board and former French health Minister. “We are proud to extend our support to the organisation and continue to work together in favour of access to innovation for the most vulnerable.”

“Access to medicines is more than ever crucial for public health systems in low- and middle-income countries. We are honored by the renewed confidence of Unitaid” said Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, Chair of MPP’s Executive Board. “Thanks to our partnership, MPP will continue to play a key role in providing access to quality, affordable and safe treatments and technologies in LMICs, making a critical contribution to the achievement of Universal Health Coverage by 2030.”

“We as communities welcome this great announcement” said Nelson Otwoma, Executive Director of the National Network of PLHAs in Kenya (NEPHAK). “If today in Kenya 1.1 million people living with HIV are on antiretrovirals, it is thanks to MPP and the availability of quality generic medicines for both adults and children. We are looking to MPP for the future and hope that affordable generic treatments will soon be available in our country for HIV related co-infections such as TB and other non-communicable diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.”

“Better access to medicines against HIV and other diseases is critical to ensure people in low- and middle-income countries continue to receive quality and effective care in the current context”, said Dr. Philippe Duneton, Executive Director of Unitaid. “In addition, MPP’s expertise provides a proven, useful model that can be used to contribute to making promising treatments against COVID-19 available and affordable”.

In April 2020, MPP’s Governance Board decided to broaden its mandate to include all health technologies that can help in the fight against COVID-19.

“In mid-November, 20 generic manufacturers entered into a ground-breaking open pledge initiated by MPP to ensure sufficient capacity and accelerate access to hundreds of millions of doses of COVID-19 treatment when they become available. The pledge is a first-of-its-kind bringing generic manufacturers together in a global response,” said Charles Gore, MPP’s Executive Director. “Our ten years of experience of working hand in glove with industry and global health partners along with our achievements to date reaffirms our commitment to ensuring no one is left behind.”

Media contact: Maggie Zander | +41 79 593 17 74 | zanderm@unitaid.who.int

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Unitaid thanks President Macron for support and leadership at the Global Fund’s successful replenishment conference

Lyon – Unitaid wholeheartedly thanks President Emmanuel Macron for France’s renewed three-year contribution, support that enables Unitaid to continue its push to bring about the innovations needed to reach the UN Sustainable Development Goals for global health.

“We maintain our full commitment to Unitaid,” President Macron said, speaking in Lyon today at the Global Fund’s Sixth Replenishment Conference. “I want to announce here the renewal of our support for the next three years.”

France is one of the founders of Unitaid, and its leading donor.

Unitaid also congratulates France for its leadership in the Global Fund’s successful replenishment, which met its goal Thursday afternoon by raising $US 14 billion for the next three years to accelerate the end of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria as epidemics.

Unitaid works closely with the Global Fund to develop global health innovations that can be introduced on a large scale.

“France’s steadfast support of Unitaid can be directly credited with millions of lives saved and improved through better access to high-quality medicines, the latest tests and methods,” Unitaid Executive Director Lelio Marmora said. “President Macron is showing unprecedented, extraordinary leadership in pushing us to do more.”

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