World Oxygen Day

Medical oxygen is a lifesaving medicine with no substitute. It is essential for surgery, emergency and critical care, and for treating severe respiratory illnesses, including COVID-19 and pneumonia. It is also crucial for treating pregnant women with complications, newborns in respiratory distress and people with severe malaria, advanced HIV disease and tuberculosis.

But despite its importance, medical oxygen is often unavailable where needed most. Severe shortages of medical oxygen have been a problem for decades; fewer than 50% of health facilities in many low- and middle- income countries have uninterrupted access. This has deadly consequences for the most vulnerable. For example, of the 7.2 million children with pneumonia in critical need of medical oxygen each year in LMICs, only one in five children will receive it.

In our new Issue Brief, we explain how Unitaid is working with partners to ensure equitable, sustainable access to medical oxygen for the people who need it most. From introducing innovative new devices to provide oxygen to newborns who are struggling to breathe to negotiating cost-saving new deals with liquid oxygen suppliers, we’re responding to today’s crises while helping build sustainable systems that will save millions more lives in the future.

 

Media contact:

For more information and media requests:

Hervé Verhoosel

Head of Communications and Spokesperson

M: +33 6 22 59 73 54

verhooselh@unitaid.who.int

UN High-Level Meetings must prioritize medical oxygen to save lives, say world’s leading agencies

Geneva/New York – In advance of the three UN High-Level Meetings on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response, Universal Health Coverage, and Tuberculosis 20-22 September 2023, about 20 of the world’s leading agencies call on world leaders to prioritize access to medical oxygen in health strategies, policies, and financing.

The Global Oxygen Alliance (GO2AL) was launched in May 2023 with Unitaid and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria as co-chairs, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) as vice-chairs, and Unitaid, the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF sharing the secretariat. GO2AL is calling for world leaders to ensure the 2023 World Health Assembly Resolution on Increasing Access to Medical Oxygen, adopted by all 194 WHO Member States, is reflected in the universal health coverage, pandemic preparedness, prevention and response, and tuberculosis agendas.

“Medical oxygen is a lifesaving medicine that is essential to pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, achieving universal health coverage and the fight against tuberculosis. If we’re going to increase access and affordability of medical oxygen for the people who need it most, we need innovative ways of producing and delivering it, and tools adapted for use in low-resource settings,” said Philippe Duneton, Executive Director of Unitaid.

Medical oxygen is a lifesaving essential medicine without substitute, used to treat both acute and chronic respiratory illnesses, including COVID-19 and pneumonia. It is essential for surgery, trauma, emergency, critical care, and for treating older people, pregnant women with obstetric complications and newborns in respiratory distress; and can support the management of opportunistic infections due to advanced HIV infection and severe forms of tuberculosis and malaria, as well as non-communicable diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cardiovascular disease.

“Access to medical oxygen and respiratory care is an essential part of resilient and sustainable health systems and a critical element of pandemic preparedness. Investments in oxygen delivery systems will save lives now and build surge capacity for countries to respond against future health threats,” said Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund.

Severe shortages of medical oxygen have been a problem for decades in many low- and middle- income countries (LMICs) and less than 50 percent of health facilities have uninterrupted access to medical oxygen. This has deadly consequences for the most vulnerable; for example, of the 7.2 million children with pneumonia in critical need of medical oxygen each year in LMICs, only one in five children will receive it. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated these chronic shortages, leading to many preventable deaths and straining already fragile health systems.

“Availability of medical oxygen can be a matter of life and death that requires deliberate political commitment. I stared at death when I was diagnosed with COVID-19 due to delayed access to oxygen therapy owing to cost and inadequate supply. Families experienced preventable deaths that would have been averted with availability of affordable medical oxygen. Without the prioritization and sustained support from governments, access to this crucial resource will remain a hindrance to provision of quality health care and efforts in saving lives.” Said Maurine Murenga, Executive Director, Lean On Me Foundation and the Communities Constituency for GO2AL.

GO2AL calls on governments and health systems to:

  • prioritize access to medical oxygen in health strategies, policies, and financing in support of universal health coverage and pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.
  • ensure that people (especially children and newborns) with pneumonia or other respiratory and critical illnesses, pregnant women and surgical patients, have reliable access to medical oxygen therapy.
  • develop comprehensive guidance for the use of medical oxygen for tuberculosis patients to support holistic care.

Access to a sustainable, reliable supply of medical oxygen in low- and middle-income countries is critical to achieving the health-related targets of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, particularly to achieving universal health coverage, supporting pandemic preparedness, prevention and response, and ending epidemics including tuberculosis.

Additional quotes from GO2AL members:

“The pandemic highlighted how important it is to guarantee access to a sustainable, reliable supply of medical oxygen in LMICs. This is a crucial aspect to achieve universal coverage and access, based on a strong and renewed primary health care.” said Jarbas Barbosa da Silva Jr., Director of PAHO.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare a long-ignored aspect of health capacity in LMICs. Therefore, sustainable investments in medical oxygen must be prioritized in the ongoing global discussion on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response and universal health coverage,” said H.E. Dr. Jean Kaseya, Director General of Africa CDC.

Editor’s note: For more information about this call to action, please see the GO2AL briefing note titled “Medical Oxygen: Essential for saving lives today and tomorrow”.

For more information about GO2AL and its new Strategy: executive summary, please visit the GO2AL website.

About GO2AL

During the COVID-19 pandemic in February 2021, amidst widespread global oxygen shortages, the world’s leading health agencies created the Oxygen Emergency Taskforce as part of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-Accelerator). The taskforce raised more than US$1 billion to boost access to medical oxygen, expand production, negotiate for better pricing, and provide technical advice to governments. As the world transitioned from the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and prepares for future health threats, the ACT-Accelerator Oxygen Emergency Taskforce evolved in May 2023 into the Global Oxygen Alliance (GO2AL), a broader partnership of about 20 health agencies and representatives from civil society and affected communities to convert the investments made during the pandemic into lives saved and to expand the work started by the taskforce.

GO2AL members include the Access to Medicine Foundation; Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention; the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Build Health International; the Clinton Health Access Initiative; the Every Breath Counts Coalition; Pan American Health Organization, Partners In Health; PATH; Save the Children; the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; UNICEF; Unitaid; UNOPS; the United States Agency for International Development; the World Health Organization; the World Bank; and representatives from civil society and affected communities. New members, including representation from LMICs, are being invited as GO2AL strives to build a stronger, more diverse, and inclusive membership.

Media contact:

For more information and media requests:

Hervé Verhoosel

Head of Communications and Spokesperson

M: +33 6 22 59 73 54

verhooselh@unitaid.who.int

Pandemic prevention, preparedness and response

Equitable access to therapeutics for pandemic preparedness and response

Global Oxygen Alliance launched to boost access to life saving oxygen

Geneva – Oxygen, a life-saving medicine to treat acute respiratory illnesses like COVID-19 and pneumonia, is essential for surgery, trauma, emergency and critical care, and treating older persons, pregnant women and newborns. Medical oxygen is also proving to be a critical tool in pandemic preparedness as the world braces itself for potential future outbreaks of respiratory diseases.

The COVID-19 pandemic, which left many patients literally gasping for air, exacerbated chronic shortages of medical oxygen in low- and middle-income countries, leading to many preventable deaths and straining the already fragile health systems.

Even before COVID-19 swept across the world, nine in ten hospitals in low- and middle-income countries were unable to provide oxygen therapy, resulting in as many as 800,000 preventable deaths each year.

Against this backdrop, the Oxygen Emergency Taskforce of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) was launched in February 2021 to coordinate the response of multilateral agencies and mobilize grant financing to help low and middle-income countries deal with acute oxygen shortages.

As WHO declares an end to COVID-19 as a global health emergency, a new Global Oxygen Alliance (GO2AL) is launched by global health partners to continue the essential work of the ACT-A Oxygen Emergency Taskforce, which raised more than US$1 billion to boost access to medical oxygen, including financing to expand production, lower the price of oxygen and provide technical support to governments. Taskforce achievements include negotiating ground-breaking agreements with the world’s two largest medical oxygen suppliers, drawing up plans to increase regional production of oxygen in low- and middle-income countries, and helping more than 100 countries to upgrade their treatment facilities.

GO2AL is designed to provide sustained support for low- and middle-income countries to fill yawning gaps in the availability and supply of medical oxygen. A core objective of GO2AL is to support countries with technical cooperation, financial solutions, capacity building, and demand-generation, to ensure that investments in oxygen systems made during the COVID-19 crisis are sustained. GO2AL will also engage in political advocacy and give a voice to those making oxygen systems work on the ground and those who need it.

“The case for scaling up oxygen therapy is overwhelming,” said Unitaid’s Executive Director Philippe Duneton. “More than one million people die each year from hypoxemia, or low blood oxygen, caused by conditions other than COVID-19, such as pneumonia, the leading cause of death among children under five. This is unacceptable and cannot go on.”

Access to medical oxygen also supports treatment of severe malaria, advanced HIV disease, and tuberculosis. Full access to oxygen, as well as pulse oximeters—portable devices that estimates the oxygen saturation of patient’s blood —could reduce mortality from all causes among hospitalized children by as much as 40 percent.

“Access to medical oxygen and respiratory care is a key component of a resilient and sustainable health system and a critical element of pandemic preparedness,” said Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund. “Our renewed alliance with global health partners will help ensure that high-quality medical oxygen services are accessible and affordable to all in low- and middle-income countries. Sustained investments in oxygen delivery systems will save lives now and build surge capacity against future threats.”

GO2AL is also closely collaborating with the Lancet Global Health Commission on Medical Oxygen Security, launched in September 2022 to address major gaps in oxygen research, mobilise a broad coalition to accelerate delivery of medical oxygen and reduce mortality and morbidity globally.

“Affected communities welcome the Global Oxygen Alliance initiative.  Through this platform we are confident that access to medical oxygen will be treated with the urgency it deserves,” said Maureen Murenga, Executive Director, Lean On Me Foundation and Communities Constituency, GO­2AL. “And that there will be global solidarity and political commitment embracing recent innovation to ensure that, regardless of anyone’s geographical location or economic status, we are able to access the much-needed life commodity.  We have the opportunity to save the millions of lives lost each year from hypoxemia.”

GO2AL was established in April 2023 with Unitaid and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria as Co-Chairs, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) as Vice-Chairs, and the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and Unitaid sharing the secretariat.

Members of the ACT-A Oxygen Emergency Task Force have chosen to join GO2AL, including: Access to Medicine Foundation; Africa CDC; Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Clinton Health Access Initiative; The Every Beath Counts Coalition; The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; PAHO; PATH; Save the Children; UNICEF; Unitaid; UNOPS; USAID; WHO; and the World Bank. New members, including representation from low- and middle-income countries, civil society and communities, are being invited as GO2AL strives to build a stronger and a more diverse and inclusive membership.

Related publications:

  • For more information about GO2AL and its new Strategy: executive summary, please visit the GO2AL website.
  • For more information about GO2AL’s launch event, please click here.

Check out the Photo Album from the launch session:

Increasing access to medical oxygen: Action to ensure sustained gains

Media contact:

For more information and media requests:

Hervé Verhoosel

Team Lead, Communications

M: +33 6 22 59 73 54

verhooselh@unitaid.who.int

Notes to editors:

Unitaid is a global health agency engaged in finding innovative solutions to prevent, diagnose, and treat diseases more quickly, affordably, and effectively, in low- and middle-income countries. Its work includes funding initiatives to address major diseases such as HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, cervical cancer, hepatitis C and other priority health conditions affecting women and children. Unitaid is now applying its expertise to address challenges in advancing new therapies and diagnostics for pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, building on its leadership role in the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator. Unitaid is hosted by the World Health Organization.

The Global Fund is a worldwide partnership to defeat HIV, TB and malaria and ensure a healthier, safer, more equitable future for all. We raise and invest more than US$4 billion a year to fight the deadliest infectious diseases, challenge the injustice which fuels them and strengthen health systems in more than 100 of the hardest hit countries. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have invested an additional US$5 billion to fight the new pandemic and reinforce systems for health. We unite world leaders, communities, civil society, health workers and the private sector to find solutions that have the most impact, and we take them to scale worldwide. Since 2002, the Global Fund partnership has saved 50 million lives.

Africa CDC is a continental autonomous health agency of the African Union (AU) established to support public health initiatives of AU Member States and strengthen the capacity of public health institutions to detect, prevent, control and respond quickly and effectively to disease threats. Africa CDC serves Member States through the AU New Public Health Order which calls for action-oriented respectful partnership as one its core pillars.

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is the specialized international health agency for the Americas, and serves as the Regional Office for the Americas of the World health Organization. It works with countries throughout the region to improve and protect people’s health. PAHO engages in technical cooperation with its member countries to fight communicable and noncommunicable diseases and their causes, to strengthen health systems, and to respond to emergencies and disasters. It has 35 Member States and four Associate Members in the region. Under their leadership, PAHO sets regional health priorities and mobilizes action to address health problems that respect no borders and that, in many cases, jeopardize the sustainability of health systems. From its Washington, D.C., headquarters, 27 country offices and three specialized centers in the region, PAHO promotes evidence-based decision-making to improve and promote health as a driver of sustainable development. Additional info: https://www.paho.org/en/who-we-are

UNICEF works in the world’s toughest places to reach the most disadvantaged children and adolescents – and to protect the rights of every child, everywhere. Across more than 190 countries and territories, we do whatever it takes to help children survive, thrive and fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence. The world’s largest provider of vaccines, we support child health and nutrition, safe water and sanitation, quality education and skill building, HIV prevention and treatment for mothers and babies, and the protection of children and adolescents from violence and exploitation.Before, during and after humanitarian emergencies, UNICEF is on the ground, bringing lifesaving help and hope to children and families. Non-political and impartial, we are never neutral when it comes to defending children’s rights and safeguarding their lives and futures. Additional information: https://www.unicef.org/what-we-do

The World Health Organization provides global leadership in public health within the United Nations system. Founded in 1948, WHO works with 194 Member States across six regions, to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable. Our goal for 2019-2023 is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and well-being.  For updates on COVID-19 and public health advice to protect yourself from coronavirus, visit www.who.int and follow WHO on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest, Snapchat, YouTube, Twitch. Additional information on WHO’s work on oxygen: www.who.int/health-topics/oxygen.

Contact WHO Media Team: mediainquiries@who.int

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Unitaid’s investment case 2023-2027

Improving access to novel COVID-19 treatments: Launch of Member States briefing on how to navigate interfaces between public health and intellectual property

Geneva, 11 April 2023 – The World Health Organization and Unitaid, with the support of Medicines Law & Policy, have today published a briefing document to support country access to affordable COVID-19 treatments.

This briefing document is a factual explanation of some of the legal instruments that WHO Member States can use to promote public health and access to COVID 19 therapeutics in the framework of their multilateral trade obligations and rights, and according to their national legislation and level of development.  It is intended to support countries dealing with challenges at the intersection of public health and intellectual property, to increase access to novel COVID-19 therapeutics and to facilitate alternative and more affordable sourcing of such treatments, where possible.

Member States should use all tools available to them and this briefing documents clearly spells out what those are including voluntary licenses to overcome intellectual property barriers. Countries that are not covered by voluntary licenses are encouraged to use to the full flexibilities under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) and the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health.

WHO Assistant Director-General, Prof. Hanan Balkhy said, “I urge Member States to implement all the available tools they have to make local production possible and to improve access. This includes licenses for access, the use of TRIPS flexibilities and the implementation of the WTO TRIPS decision. WHO will continue providing technical assistance on how to make use of these instruments.”

Dr Philippe Duneton, Executive Director of Unitaid added “It is crucial to prioritize the availability and accessibility of essential health technologies worldwide. By harnessing all tools at our disposal, we can increase access to essential health products and, ultimately, save more lives. At Unitaid, we remain committed to working with our partners to explore all solutions that will enable us to overcome the challenges posed by the pandemic and build a more resilient health system for the future.”

The briefing document contains background information and resources on the therapeutics landscape and WHO recommendations (Section 2); an overview of the Medicines Patent Pool licenses for oral antivirals and the implications for country access (Section 3); the WHO COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (Section 4); other licenses relevant to COVID-19 therapeutics (Section 5); and guidance on the use of TRIPS flexibilities (Section 6).

Existing voluntary licenses for novel COVID-19 treatments do not include many middle-income countries hence they cannot benefit from affordable generic versions of therapeutics recommended by WHO. WHO calls on technology holders to expand the geographic scope of these licenses to allow competition and price reductions so that these important treatments can be used where they are needed the most.

Read the report:

About Unitaid

Unitaid is a global health agency engaged in finding innovative solutions to prevent, diagnose, and treat diseases more quickly, cheaply, and effectively, in low- and middle-income countries. Its work includes funding initiatives to address major diseases such as HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis, as well as HIV co-infections and co-morbidities including advanced HIV disease, cervical cancer, and hepatitis C, and cross-cutting areas, such as fever management. Unitaid is now applying its expertise to address challenges in advancing new therapies and diagnostics for the COVID-19 pandemic, serving as a key member of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, co-leading with Wellcome the Therapeutics Pillar and participating in the Diagnostics Pillar. Unitaid is hosted by the World Health Organization.

Media contact:

For more information and media requests:

Maxime Paquin

Communications Officer

M: +41 79 516 56 00

paquinm@unitaid.who.int