Unitaid supports G20’s push for stronger health systems and greater access to health innovation as leaders convene in India
As the G20 Health Ministers’ Meeting of India’s presidency convenes in Gandhinagar today, Unitaid welcomes the group’s shared commitment to improving access to health and strengthening cooperation to create stronger health systems.
India has set three health priorities in its capacity as G20 president: emergency prevention, preparedness and response; strengthening cooperation in the pharmaceutical sector with a focus on access and availability to safe, effective, quality, and affordable vaccines, treatments, and diagnostics; and advancing digital health innovations and solutions to aid universal health coverage and improve service delivery.
“As a global health agency committed to tackling the barriers that keep health innovations from reaching communities in low- and middle-income countries, Unitaid commends the G20 on its efforts to foster inclusive coordination and address gaps in the global health ecosystem,” said Dr Philippe Duneton, Unitaid’s Executive Director, during his intervention in Gandhinagar today.
“The Indian G20 Presidency, the World Health Organization, and member states have called on us to build on lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and to ensure we have the necessary medicines and medical supplies needed to respond to global health emergencies.
“We must invest in research and development for therapeutics, small molecules and biological products, and work with both public and private initiatives, including the pharmaceutical industry, to accelerate the development of innovative tools and make them widely available in low- and middle-income countries. Unitaid commends India’s leadership and the G20’s efforts to address gaps in the global health ecosystem.”
Unitaid and its partners are working on a research and development roadmap for therapeutics to be issued before end of January 2024.
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Hervé Verhoosel
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Global Health 50/50 report ranks Unitaid as a leader in gender equity
Unitaid is proud to announce its impressive performance in Global Health 50/50’s 6th annual Report, titled ‘Workplaces: worse for women’. Since 2020, Unitaid has been recognized as a Very High Performer, scoring very high on Global Health 50/50’s Gender and Health Index. The recognition demonstrates our persistent commitment to gender equality and diversity in the way we work.
Equity is ingrained in our values and principles, guiding every aspect of our work. We prioritize reducing inequities in accessing quality health products and services to achieve sustainable development goals. Our investments target tools, services, and care models that improve health outcomes and address global health priorities, with a strong focus on gender-related access issues, particularly for women and girls.
“Addressing inequity is central to our mission,” said Dr Philippe Duneton, Unitaid’s Executive Director. “We prioritize investments and products that benefit vulnerable populations who face barriers in accessing optimal care. These populations vary across our focus areas, but can include key populations in HIV, pregnant women, people who inject drugs, transgender women, female sex workers, gay men, men and children with gaps in HIV testing and treatment, prisoners at higher risk of acquiring TB, vulnerable children susceptible to serious forms of TB, and pregnant women in malaria-endemic regions.”
In addition to prioritizing vulnerable populations, we secure affordable access to health products through innovative supply models, domestic manufacturing, technology transfer, and the establishment of an enabling environment for access, including intellectual property and regulation.
Unitaid recognizes the importance of collaboration and engagement with organizations and partners closest to the population with the highest need. By fostering inclusive and demand-driven partnerships, we ensure our funding supports context-specific solutions. We expect grant implementers to follow comparable standards, thus enhancing the impact of our collective work.
By increasingly engaging communities and civil society, we can help establish inclusive partnerships and foster an inclusive environment that values varied viewpoints, backgrounds, and experiences, thus empowering individuals and communities.
We thank Global Health 50/50 for their insightful research, which inspires us to continue working to make global health fairer and more inclusive. Unitaid remains steadfast in our dedication to equity, gender equality, and promoting access to health innovations for all.
For more information:
- Learn more about Global Health 50/50’s 6th annual Report, ‘Workplaces: worse for women‘.
- Learn more about Unitaid’s 2023-2027 Strategy.
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Hervé Verhoosel
Team Lead, Communications
M: +33 6 22 59 73 54
Unitaid set to play a crucial role in meeting global health targets by 2030 through the introduction of 30 critical innovations
Unitaid-WHO partnership has advanced over 60 updates to global health policy, leading to unprecedented scale-up of game-changing health solutions
Geneva – A long-standing partnership between Unitaid and the World Health Organization (WHO) accelerates evidence generation to inform rapid updates to global guidance. This partnership has helped speed access to vital interventions that include best-in-class HIV and TB medicines, cutting-edge malaria-fighting tools, and major advances in prevention and care of cervical cancer and hepatitis C for people in resource-limited settings.
Published as global health leaders gather in Geneva for the 76th World Health Assembly, the report outlines the impact of this collaboration in moving the needle towards achieving 2030 targets outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals.
Health programs worldwide rely on the WHO to review data and issue guidance, enabling them to roll out new health products and interventions safely and effectively. The two agencies have developed a collaborative approach to condense the timeline required to ensure new tools reach countries as quickly as possible.
This process ensures that evidence generated from Unitaid’s work can be rapidly translated into guidelines and recommendations issued by WHO. Unitaid identifies promising health solutions and works with WHO to shape and inform investment ideas. Unitaid then convenes qualified partners to deliver high-quality research and remove access barriers to enable wide-scale adoption. Based on evidence generated through this and partners’ research, WHO issues updates to global policies and supports countries to scale up vital products and interventions.
Since 2017, WHO has facilitated the design and delivery of more than 160 Unitaid-funded studies. This critical research has underpinned more than 60 updates to health guidelines and implementation tools. National health programs and global scale-up partners then implement vital interventions that are critical in advancing the care for people affected by or at risk of HIV, TB, malaria, cervical cancer, hepatitis C and COVID-19.
“Since its creation, Unitaid has been supporting countries to access innovations that save lives,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General, WHO. “WHO is proud to work with Unitaid to identify gaps and design interventions that are most needed to protect and promote health. By working to make sure innovations do not get stuck on their path to scale-up, the entire global health system benefits from Unitaid’s model.”
“WHO plays a critical role in shaping and informing Unitaid’s investment ideas. This ensures that evidence generated from our investments is rapidly translated into global guidance, leading to national policies which meet the needs of the most under-served populations,” said Dr Philippe Duneton, Executive Director of Unitaid.
Access the report, Better Health Solutions, here.
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For more information and media requests:
Hervé Verhoosel
Team Lead, Communications
M: +33 6 22 59 73 54
verhooselh@unitaid.who.int
Better health solutions
Unitaid’s investment case 2023-2027
Unitaid welcomes the reconfirmed commitment to health and wellbeing made by Brazil and Portugal
As leaders from the two nations convened at the Brazil-Portugal Summit this week, a memorandum of understanding was signed reiterating the countries’ shared commitments to universal and equitable access to health, and highlighted Unitaid as a key actor in global health.
The agreement outlines a common vision of the future in which health issues will play an increasingly central role in the well-being of the populations of their countries and in the strengthening of their national economies. They pledged to coordinate efforts so that the treatment of health issues is a factor in reinforcing relations between the two governments at the bilateral, bi-regional and international levels and renewed their commitment to health cooperation within the community of Portuguese-speaking countries (CPLP) for the benefit of all its members.
Notably, the so-called “Carta de Lisboa” emphasizes the centrality of the World Health Organization in dealing with multilateral health issues and the importance of enhancing the performance of organs of the global health architecture, such as Unitaid.
“Unitaid commends the leadership of Brazil and Portugal in advancing collaborative and equitable approaches to health,” said Mauricio Cysne, Senior Advisor, Unitaid. “Strong partnerships such as this one are critical to enabling Unitaid to accelerate global health responses and ensure vital tests, medicines, and other health technologies reach people everywhere they are needed.”
Brazil was one of five founding members of Unitaid in 2006 and has been a strong ally ever since. Portugal’s commitment to Unitaid began during the COVID-19 pandemic and this support has carried over in support of the 2023-2027 Strategy.
Media contact:
For more information and media requests:
Hervé Verhoosel
Team Lead, Communications
M: +33 6 22 59 73 54