Executive Board approves ambitious new areas of work for Unitaid during its 43rd meeting

Brasilia, 22 November 2023 – Hosted by Brazil, one of Unitaid’s founding members, the 43rd session of Unitaid’s Executive Board concluded with decisions that chart out ambitious new areas of work that reaffirm Unitaid’s role as a pathfinder and innovator while adapting to today’s global health challenges.

Progress towards meeting key 2030 global health targets is off-track as needs outstrip available resources. At the status quo, ending the AIDS, Tuberculosis, and malaria epidemics, as well as preventable deaths of newborns and children under five, are looking increasingly unlikely, while at the same time, climate disasters and the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic are straining global health programs.

Against this backdrop, Unitaid is looking at innovative solutions that are needed now more than ever to help meet the needs of the most vulnerable populations and enable the global response to continue progressing toward 2030 targets.

In support of these efforts, the Board reiterated its support for Unitaid’s resource mobilization efforts, approved a new area for intervention to enable access to monoclonal antibodies to treat and prevent infectious disease in low and middle-income countries (LMICs), and approved a new climate and health strategy to contribute to resilient health systems centered around climate-smart health products.

Monoclonal antibodies can treat or prevent a wide range of diseases – and are already revolutionizing modern medicine in high-income countries. They also hold great potential to transform how public health needs are addressed in LMICs. But this transformative technology is not yet a reality in many LMICs, due to high cost and other access barriers. Unitaid has identified opportunities to address these barriers and help establish viable business models, enabling access to monoclonal antibodies to treat and prevent infectious diseases in LMICs.

“Despite the global health challenges of today, I see real grounds for optimism thanks to the generosity of our host, Brazil, and other donors who remain committed to delivering quality health innovations,” said Dr Philippe Duneton, Executive Director of Unitaid. “I am also encouraged by the Executive Board’s decision to approve Unitaid’s new area for intervention in monoclonal antibodies, given their transformative potential and promise in infectious diseases, children’s health, and pandemics. Today’s rising challenges demand ambitious solutions,” he added.

During the two-day session, the Board also voted to extend until end of 2025 the terms of current Executive Board Chair, Marisol Touraine, and Vice-Chair, Ambassador Cecilia Kiku Ishitani, ensuring continuity and stability in Unitaid’s leadership as the global health infrastructure continues to recover from the unforeseen impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We were delighted to hold this year’s Executive Board meeting in Brasilia, where we were warmly welcomed. Critical decisions were taken which will support Unitaid to shape a more equitable and sustainable future,” said Ms. Touraine. “And I am grateful to the Board for their trust and confidence to extend my term as the Board Chair. I look forward to building upon the progress we made together over my last two terms and ensure Unitaid continues to succeed as a pioneer for equitable global health solutions.”

During her tenure as chair, Ms. Touraine helped to strengthen Unitaid’s governance and create greater transparency and inclusivity. Her strategic leadership of the Board during the COVID-19 pandemic brought clear guidance to the Secretariat and helped Unitaid adapt and evolve, demonstrating the relevance of its model and how it complements the work of other key global health players in delivering effective solutions.

The extended terms of the Chair and Vice-Chair will end at the closure of the December 2025 Executive Board meeting, and will align with the mid-term review of Unitaid’s 2023-2027 strategy.

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Kyle Wilkinson,

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The health products manufacturers support platform: Enhancing regional manufacturing of health technologies in Africa

Unitaid partners with the Climate Action Accelerator

To accelerate progress on our climate commitments and make our work more sustainable, we are proud to partner with the Climate Action Accelerator (CAA). CAA is a non-profit organization that provides technical expertise to organizations to help reduce their carbon emissions, creating a global community to push for the race to zero.

CAA will support Unitaid to cut our emissions in half by 2030 or earlier and to reach net-zero by 2050. Partnering with CAA is part of our ongoing work to address the impacts of climate change on our work – and the impact of our work on the environment. The global health sector contributes 4.6% of the world’s carbon emissions, with a notable portion of these emissions associated with the manufacturing, transportation and delivery of health products and services. Unitaid and our partners have a collective responsibility to reduce our own negative impacts on the environment and contribute to making the global health sector more sustainable.

Climate and health is a key priority in our 2023-2027 Strategy. We are working to introduce health products with lower environmental footprints and that support increased resilience for health systems to better adapt to a changing climate. We are also developing a dedicated climate and health strategy to be submitted for approval to the Executive Board in November 2023.

 

Edits: This article was edited on 28 November 2023 to correct the global health sector’s contribution to the world’s carbon emissions, which amount to 4.6% as per the 2023 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change.

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Novel business models for accessible monoclonal antibodies for infectious diseases in LMICS: Multistakeholder meeting recommendations

Unitaid’s Executive Chair calls for action on TB at UN High-Level Meeting  

On 22 September, heads of state and leaders in global health came together at the United Nations High-Level Meeting on Tuberculosis to get efforts to end TB back on track. The Chair of Unitaid’s Executive Board and former French Minister of Social Affairs and Health, Marisol Touraine, addressed the high-level delegation.

Her remarks are reproduced in full below.

Distinguished President of the General Assembly and Secretary General, Esteemed Director General of WHO, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, it is an honor for me and a great responsibility to carry before you the hopes of all those who fight the daily battle against the scourge of tuberculosis: patients, health professionals, activists, scientists.

I want to carry the hope that the declaration this General Assembly will adopt will be rapidly implemented in tangible measures for the patients.

The hope that tuberculosis won’t be a one-day priority but will remain an everyday mobilization.

Now, if you allow me, I will use my privilege to speak in French.

[Translated from French]

The world is not sufficiently aware that tuberculosis is the deadliest infectious disease after Covid-19.

The situation is dramatic – just a few months of the pandemic were enough to undermine progress achieved over years of commitment: drug resistance is intensifying, prevention is inadequate and patients sometimes wait months for treatment. Every year, four million people are not screened because tests are still too complex and too expensive. Every day, more than 650 children die of tuberculosis. It’s unbearable because it is a disease of poverty, which strikes the poor and impoverishes the sick. But solutions do exist.

Our collective mobilization must therefore be equal to this challenge: we must guarantee equitable access to prevention and care. To this end, I welcome the General Assembly’s vision this year, which places the battle against tuberculosis alongside the two other health priorities of pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, and universal health coverage. On the condition, however, that these three debates converge and give rise to a common strategy because the battle against tuberculosis calls for a global and coherent vision, not only in scientific and medical terms, but also in social terms.

As President of Unitaid, I know that these challenges are within our grasp if we mobilize and innovate. Unitaid has become the leading multilateral funder of tuberculosis research and development. We work with multiple partners to identify innovations that will become concrete solutions for patients.

Our work has led to the launch of the first anti-tuberculosis drugs for children, and has helped to advance pediatric diagnosis of the disease by diversifying the type of samples used. We helped rapidly expand access to shorter, more effective preventive treatments by reducing their price by 80%. We have played a key role in obtaining technologies that can rapidly identify multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, and we have funded massive studies and clinical trials that are transforming its treatment, making it easier to take and less toxic.

This progress can and must be continued and amplified. Unitaid will continue to play its part, but everyone must play theirs: so that patients can be treated quickly, and so that the cost of tests and treatments can be brought down.

This challenge calls for more innovation, more cooperation, more mobilization. The fight against tuberculosis must be at the heart of a strategy to strengthen the provision of primary healthcare. Partnerships are essential, and in this respect, I am delighted with the work carried out between Unitaid and WHO. Cooperation with civil society and affected communities is crucial if we are to reach to those who need our support more quickly. Just this week, Unitaid has launched a call for proposals to fight multidrug-resistant tuberculosis through affected communities.

We need an effective vaccine, and I salute the efforts of the Gates Foundation and others to advance this development. Real progress has been made in terms of access to medicines: I solemnly call on the pharmaceutical industry to go even further and to make a resolute commitment to making their innovations accessible to all, in particular by renouncing secondary patents, which will enable a quality generics market.

So, to all of you – excellencies, citizens, researchers and activists – I say: there is hope, success is within our reach.

Let’s make today the moment that marks change.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation doubles its contribution to Unitaid to US$100 million over 5 years

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced a long-term commitment of $100 million to Unitaid to bring faster access to health products in low- and middle-income countries. This funding doubles the foundation’s previous commitment and will support Unitaid’s work to accelerate the introduction and delivery of new lifesaving solutions at equitable scale, including those for maternal and newborn health.

The foundation highlighted that Unitaid’s unique approach helps reach the health-related targets of the Sustainable Development Goals more quickly.

“It takes far too long for lifesaving products to get from approval to widespread adoption. For over 15 years, Unitaid has played a pivotal role in speeding up that process – developing new health innovations, then working with organizations like the Global Fund to get them to people faster,” said Bill Gates, co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “We’re on the cusp of exciting new innovations that will help accelerate progress on HIV, TB, and malaria, as well as maternal and child health. By doubling our foundation’s commitment to Unitaid, we hope to get these tools in the hands of health workers in time to save millions of lives.”

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has been a supporter of Unitaid since its inception and serves as a member of Unitaid’s Executive Board. Since our creation, they have contributed a total of US$150 million to Unitaid’s work to fast-track the development of lifesaving tests, treatments and tools and speed up access for the people who need them most. With support from donors like the Gates Foundation, Unitaid has unlocked access to more than 100 groundbreaking products that are now considered the gold standard for fighting HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, improving women’s and children’s health, and strengthening pandemic preparedness and response.

Unitaid thanks the Gates Foundation for its ongoing support and the new funding, which will help us find new solutions to the most pressing global health challenges.

Read the full press release here.

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Presidents of Brazil and France call for increased support to Unitaid to speed up access to lifesaving health products

  • Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and French President Emmanuel Macron, leaders of two co-founding countries of Unitaid, call for faster access to lifesaving health products in low- and middle-income countries and applaud new funding for Unitaid
  • The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation doubles its support to Unitaid to US$100 million over the next five years

New York/Geneva – During this year’s United Nations General Assembly, world leaders, health partners and community representatives joined Unitaid to call for faster and more equitable access to lifesaving health products to advance progress on today’s greatest health challenges, including maternal and child health, pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, and HIV, tuberculosis and malaria.

Millions of people in low- and middle-income countries are dying every year from preventable, treatable diseases because they can’t access the lifesaving health products they need. As the world saw during the COVID-19 pandemic, tests, treatments and tools are often either unavailable, unaffordable or arrive too slowly for the people who need them most. Unitaid was created to address this inequality, working with partners to make lifesaving quality health products accessible, equitable and affordable – fast.

“To overcome today’s health challenges, we must move faster, and be more innovative, than ever before. We must be transformative if we are to stop pregnant women and babies from dying for lack of simple treatments such as medical oxygen, and to finally end the epidemics of HIV, tuberculosis and malaria. Unitaid is leading the way by finding the most effective new health products and solutions to address the challenges that are holding us back. This is why France is proud to be one of Unitaid’s founding supporters,” said French President Emmanuel Macron.

Since Unitaid was created in 2006, it has helped fast-track development and approval of more than 100 health products that are now considered the gold standard for fighting HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, improving women’s and children’s health, and strengthening pandemic preparedness and response. Together with partners, it has lowered prices for lifesaving tests, treatments and tools and increased access for the people most in need.

“I was there when Brazil helped create Unitaid in 2006, and I believe this work is needed today more than ever,” said Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil.” “The world saw inequalities spiral during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is unacceptable that the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people don’t have access to tests, medicines and health tools that we know save lives. Health is a human right. Brazil is proud to support Unitaid in its critical work to fast-track new health products and make them accessible and affordable for the people who need them most.”

In a world faced with rising health challenges, Unitaid’s solutions are needed more than ever. COVID-19 contributed to the deaths of nearly 25 million people and reversed progress toward global health goals, and it’s only a matter of time before we’re faced with the next pandemic. Hotter temperatures and changing rainfall patterns caused by climate change are pushing diseases like malaria into new communities. Tuberculosis, HIV and malaria still kill 2.7 million people each year and are becoming increasingly drug-resistant, making them harder to treat.

To help address these challenges, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced it will double its support to Unitaid to US$100 million over the next five years.

“It takes far too long for lifesaving products to get from approval to widespread adoption. For over 15 years, Unitaid has played a pivotal role in speeding up that process – developing new health innovations, then working with organizations like the Global Fund to get them to people faster,” said Bill Gates, co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “We’re on the cusp of exciting new innovations that will help accelerate progress on HIV, TB, and malaria, as well as maternal and child health. By doubling our foundation’s commitment to Unitaid, we hope to get these tools in the hands of health workers in time to save millions of lives.”

“I applaud the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s decision to double its financial support to Unitaid,” said President Macron.

Portugal and Spain also announced new funding this week. Unitaid achieves its impact by working together with partners in the global health community, including the countries and affected communities who identify challenges and potential solutions; the researchers and companies creating innovative new products; the implementing partners and health workers testing those products and solutions in country; the World Health Organization which uses evidence from Unitaid’s work to make policy and give official approval for the new products; and the governments and global health organizations like the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), and the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) that buy the products and take them to scale around the world.

“If we are to save lives faster and attain the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, we will need to intensify our efforts to ensure everyone, everywhere has access to the health products they need to protect themselves and their families. The doubling of the financial contribution by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to Unitaid is an important step. I also welcome the recently announced contributions to Unitaid by the Governments of Spain and Portugal. This support will help Unitaid find new solutions that will improve women’s and children’s health, fight HIV, TB and malaria, and address the health impacts from new challenges like climate change.” said Marisol Touraine, Unitaid Board Chair.

Unitaid’s unique approach of helping to introduce new health products and solutions, then working with governments and partners to take them to scale, helps reach the health-related targets of the Sustainable Development Goals three years faster, according to a joint study of Unitaid’s work.

“I know the value of Unitaid’s work because I’ve lived it,” said Maurine Murenga, a Kenyan health advocate. “I remember what it was like to get diagnosed with HIV and not have access to medicines. To not have treatment for my newborn child. Access is a right. And Unitaid helped make that right a reality for countless people in low- and middle-income countries.”

Brazil and France will co-host an event with Unitaid in New York this evening, “Equitable Access to Health Technologies: The Key to the Future of Global Health”. Keynote addresses will be made by Dr. Nísia Trindade, the Minister of Health of Brazil, Mr. Aurélien Rousseau, the Minister of Health and Prevention of France, and Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organization. Representatives from communities, governments and global health partners will discuss new ways to speed up equitable access to new health products so we can save lives, faster.

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