World Pneumonia Day: Unitaid’s work to enhance global access to medical oxygen will contribute to reducing childhood mortality
Geneva – On World Pneumonia Day 2022, Unitaid reaffirms its commitment to address global inequities in access to medical oxygen as a key driver to reduce the number of deaths in children under five years old.
Despite being preventable and curable, pneumonia, an acute form of respiratory infection, remains the world’s biggest infectious killer of children under-5 years, accounting for more than 740,000 deaths in 2019, mostly in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
Coupled with antibiotics, medical oxygen could save the lives of many children who develop severe pneumonia. But many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) face serious challenges in accessing safe and affordable oxygen.
Even before the pandemic, it was estimated that 9 in 10 hospitals in LMICs lacked access to life-saving oxygen therapy. COVID-19 has only worsened this situation, leading to many preventable deaths and straining fragile health systems.
Challenges for accessing safe and affordable oxygen are multiple and can range from availability, quality, affordability, management, supply, human resources capacity and safety.
Unitaid has invested US$ 130 million to date to secure sustainable access to oxygen and expand access to pulse oximeters, essential life-saving portable devices that can detect when medical oxygen is needed. This work could potentially save the lives of as many as 320,000 pneumonia deaths a year, according to the World Health Organization estimates.
Unitaid has been addressing access to medical oxygen since 2019 through a diverse portfolio of investments including piloting pulse oximetry and fever management at primary health care level to identify and refer critically ill children to hospitals without delay, advancing improved non-invasive ventilation strategies for newborns and oxygen concentrator technologies.
Spearheading progress through market shaping interventions (improved affordability, increased production capacity and accelerated equipment delivery times), technical support and capacity building, Unitaid and partners are also leading efforts to scale-up access and availability to medical oxygen, implementing adequate and sustainable oxygen solutions in LMICs.
Among key achievements, Unitaid has supported oxygen needs assessments in 51 countries, has contributed to securing price reductions for liquid oxygen following unprecedent agreement with two major gas companies that enabled other scale-up partners to secure increased access with the same funding levels, and has ensured sufficient oxygen supply by installing or repairing oxygen production plants and piping systems and other respiratory care equipment.
Increasing the availability of medical oxygen commodities and ensuring a sustainable oxygen ecosystem will enable greater impact of Unitaid’s work to both improve child survival with triage and treatment tools and help respond to future global health emergencies, two programmatic priorities of Unitaid’s strategy 2023-2027.
- Unitaid and medical oxygen (FACTSHEET)
- Boosting medical oxygen supplies in the Democratic Republic of Congo (A photo story):
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Sarah Mascheroni
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Maggie Zander
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G20 health ministers appeal for more TB funding and deliver six key actions to strengthen the global health architecture
28 October, Geneva – World health leaders launched a call to action on financing tuberculosis (TB) today in Bali, Indonesia, where they met ahead of the G20 Summit to discuss strengthening global health architecture.
G20 members recognize that lack of adequate financing remains the top obstacle to ending the TB epidemic, and stress that global investments must increase fourfold by 2030 to meet the targets set for ending this preventable and treatable disease.
The call to action coincides with the recent launch of the World Health Organization’s 2022 Global TB Report, which laid bare the devastating consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on global efforts to control TB.
The report showed an increase for the first time in many years in the number of people falling ill with TB and drug-resistant TB, along with a decline in 2021 in global spending on essential TB services.
At the same time, G20 members underscored the critical role Unitaid plays in the TB response as the world’s largest multilateral donor to TB research and development, striving for equitable access to life-saving diagnostics and treatment.
Unitaid has contributed to the global efforts by supporting research related to multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) treatment, paediatric TB diagnosis, child-friendly formulations of TB and MDR-TB drugs, TB preventive therapy (the 3HP regimen), and digital adherence technologies. The agency is investing an additional US$ 30 million, aiming to increase TB detection and help to find the missing millions of cases.
Following discussions on strengthening the global health architecture and pandemic prevention, preparedness and response , G20 health ministers delivered six key actions for consideration during the G20 Leaders’ Summit in mid-November.
Unitaid, as a key player for equitable access to health innovation, remains committed to help build global health resilience and response capacity against future pandemic threats.
As co-leader of the ACT-Accelerator’s therapeutics pillar, Unitaid has contributed to substantial progress in the COVID-19 response, demonstrating its unique capability to transform markets and help countries and communities achieve an enabling environment for product adoption.
“Responding to the COVID-19 health crisis, Unitaid and partners have improved access to critical oxygen supplies and facilitated adoption of life-saving therapeutics alongside vital diagnostic tests. But this is not the end of it, much work remains to be done,” Unitaid Executive Director Dr Philippe Duneton said. “We must focus on building resilience at the market and country level in light of unpredictable and fast evolving scenarios. COVID-19 has shown us that reaching equitable global access to medical countermeasures requires a continuum between pandemic preparedness and response efforts.”
Access more information on the Call to Action on Financing for TB Response here.
Access the G20 Health Ministers Communiqué here.
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Sarah Mascheroni
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Maggie Zander
Communications officer
M: +41 79 593 17 74
The Republic of Korea reaffirms its strong support to Unitaid to ensure equitable access to health tools
Dr Philippe Duneton, Executive Director of Unitaid and Marisol Touraine, Chair of Unitaid’s Executive Board with Mr. Park Yong Min, Deputy Minister for Multilateral and Global Affairs (left) and Mr. Won Do-Yeon, Director-General of the Cooperation Bureau and Unitaid Board Member (right).
Geneva – Unitaid welcomes the contribution of US$5 million from the Republic of Korea to support the implementation of its new strategy.
The Republic of Korea has supported Unitaid’s essential role in the fight against HIV, tuberculosis, malaria and, more recently, COVID-19 as a key donor and member of the Executive Board since 2007.
This latest commitment of funding builds on an US$80 million total contribution from the Republic of Korea since Unitaid’s inception, including support to Unitaid’s COVID-19 response work as part of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A).
“The Republic of Korea strongly appreciates Unitaid’s work in ensuring access to health innovations and will continue to strengthen its cooperation with Unitaid,” said Mr. Park Yong Min, Deputy Minister for Multilateral and Global Affairs.
Unitaid is grateful for the Republic of Korea’s longstanding support and renewed financial contribution. We value the Republic of Korea’s leadership in global health driven by the Korean biotechnology companies’ excellent R&D and manufacturing capacity,” said Marisol Touraine, Chair of Unitaid’s Executive Board.
The funding commitment was announced on the sidelines of the World Bio Summit, co-hosted by the Republic of Korea and the World Health Organization.
For media requests:
Maggie Zander
Communications officer
M: +41 79 593 17 74
Canada contributes Can$ 25 million to Unitaid to expand sustainable access to medical oxygen
Geneva and New York City – Unitaid welcomes Canada’s contribution of Can$ 25 million to support the organization’s work to boost access to medical oxygen in low- and middle-income countries, to support the COVID-19 response and future health emergencies.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced this new funding on the sidelines of the Global Fund Seventh Replenishment Pledging Session, during the UN General Assembly in New York.
Canada’s significant contribution aims to support the efforts of the Oxygen Emergency Taskforce to further increase access to liquid oxygen, lower costs of gas and equipment, strengthen infrastructure, expand technical capacity, and ensure safe use of medical oxygen in low- and middle-income countries. It will help expand sustainable access to adequate and affordable oxygen solutions, and support countries to develop strategic national oxygen roadmaps and prepare for future health threats.
With this additional funding, Canada has provided Can$ 60 million to Unitaid for equitable access to COVID-19 treatments, including oxygen, through the ACT-Accelerator.
Dr. Philippe Duneton, Executive Director of Unitaid, said: “No one should die because of a lack of medical oxygen. I am very grateful to Canada for this important contribution to the work Unitaid is leading with partners to address global inequities in access to this essential medicine. The new funding will help save lives now and prepare the world for future health emergencies.”
Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau and Dr. Philippe Duneton, Executive Director of Unitaid
Oxygen is an essential medicine used to treat many conditions affecting newborns, children, and adults. It is a vital treatment for severe COVID-19 with an estimated 75% of people hospitalized who can survive with oxygen therapy alone. Investing in oxygen now will save lives beyond the pandemic by strengthening health systems and significantly reducing deaths among newborns, children and women in childbirth. It will continue to be a core tool for future health emergencies.
Unitaid has been addressing access to medical oxygen since 2019 through a diverse portfolio of investments including piloting pulse oximetry and fever management at primary health care level to identify and refer critically ill children to hospitals, advancing improved non-invasive ventilation strategies for newborns and oxygen concentrator technologies.
Unitaid is chairing the Oxygen Emergency Taskforce established in February 2021 to drive the multilateral oxygen support effort and is co-leading the ACT-Accelerator’s Therapeutics pillar with the Global Fund and Wellcome.
For more information:
Sarah Mascheroni
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Maggie Zander
Communications officer
M: +41 79 593 17 74
Next generation pulse oximeters have great potential to reduce maternal and child mortality, PATH and Unitaid report says
A technology and market landscape report by PATH and Unitaid
To date, maternal and child mortality rates remain unacceptably high. In 2020, still over 5 million children under 5 years of age died, mostly in low- and middle-income countries, and mostly from conditions that are preventable or treatable, such as pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria and preterm birth complications.
To reach maternal and child global health targets by 2030[1], equitable access to innovative devices that have the potential to support health care workers in low-resource settings as they make decisions and provide fit-for-purpose treatment solutions, is urgently needed.
Pulse oximeters (POs) are noninvasive devices that measure blood oxygen saturation and pulse rate. They are used to help health care workers detect hypoxemia – a low level of oxygen in the blood – and to know how much oxygen to administer to patients. Detecting hypoxemia can allow timely treatment with oxygen therapy and save hundreds of thousands of lives each year.
The PATH-Unitaid technology and market landscape report, launched today, reviews the nascent global market for the next generation of pulse oximetry – multimodal POs.
These devices expand the features of standard POs by collecting additional clinical measurements, such as respiratory rate, temperature, and/or haemoglobin integrated into a single device that is appropriate for use in low-resource settings. These promising products can provide objective measurements to caregivers, via the same device and at the same time, to support clinical decision-making and ultimately save lives.
The report analyzes existing and emerging products and aims to assess their potential to improve screening for various illnesses that affect maternal and child health in low- and middle-income countries.
The report also examines market and technological challenges that hamper the adoption, scale-up and wide access in low-resource settings to these potentially lifesaving tools and maps out opportunities to overcome barriers limiting equitable access, including issues related to quality, availability, affordability, demand and supply.
Multimodal POs that are affordable, high-quality, and appropriately designed have the potential to achieve meaningful impact.
In addition to reducing mortality, multimodal POs could further optimize efficient use of resources and reduce the overall strain on health systems by minimizing the need for costly testing, strengthening referral decisions, and reducing unnecessary hospitalizations, intensive therapy, and overuse of antibiotic treatments.
In its work to address fever management and promote the adoption and scale-up of POs in primary health care, Unitaid has a portfolio of two complimentary grants for this purpose. Namely, Améliorer l’Identification des Détresses Respiratoire chez l’Enfant (AIRE) led by the Alliance for International Medical Action (ALIMA) and Tools for Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (TIMCI), led by PATH.
As part of the broader TIMCI project, PATH is currently initiating an evaluation and operational research study to assess performance and feasibility of using these tools by primary health care providers in Kenya, Senegal, Tanzania, and Uttar Pradesh, India.
Over the past four years, Unitaid and PATH have worked together to expand access to high-quality POs and clinical decision support algorithms to enable primary health care workers to better identify severely ill children and refer them for appropriate treatment without delay. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the need for reliable access to such devices as part of sustainable and equitable oxygen delivery system even more to light.
- Access the Next Generation Pulse Oximeters Technology and Market Landscape here
[1] Sustainable Development Goal 3: Target 3.1, By 2030, reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births. Target 3.2, By 2030, end preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5 years of age, with all countries aiming to reduce neonatal mortality to at least as low as 12 per 1,000 live births and under‑5 mortality to at least as low as 25 per 1,000 live births.
Related projects and publications:
- Better tools to detect signs of severe illness in children Tools for Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (TIMCI) PATH project
- Better technology to identify critically ill children Alliance for International Medical Action (ALIMA) AIRE project
- Fever diagnostic technology landscape, 1st edition february 2018
For more information:
Sarah Mascheroni
For media requests:
Maggie Zander
Communications officer
M: +41 79 593 17 74
Invitation to local manufacturers of liquid oxygen to submit an expression of interest (“EOI”) for financial and technical support to improve access and affordability of liquid and medical oxygen in Sub-Saharan African countries.
Call for Expression of Interest (CEI)
The purpose of this CEI is to identify opportunities to support local suppliers interested in increasing availability and affordability of medical oxygen for public procurers.
- Download Expression of Interest (CEI)
- EOIs should be submitted via e-mail with the subject line “Expression of Interest Liquid Oxygen”, to Unitaid-proc@who.int
- Please see the Frequently Asked Questions for more information.
- Webinar on this CEI
Closing Date: 5pm (GMT), 30 July 2022
Webinar on this EOI
Please join Unitaid and MedAccess for a webinar providing potential applicants with more information on the EOI.
Date: 20 July 2022 at 12pm CEST
Join via Zoom: https://unitaid.zoom.us/j/84130020292
US$ 83 million of investments from Unitaid to address global inequities in access to oxygen will drive long term benefits, Unitaid urges other donors to commit more funding for medical oxygen
Boilerplate Press Release by Oxygen Donors
Today, Unitaid urgently calls on other donors to commit more funding for medical oxygen to help close the US$1 billion funding gap in the oxygen response. Its US$ 83 million of total investments to date to address global inequities in access to oxygen will drive long term benefits for low- and middle-income countries. But more funding is needed to save lives now and support countries prepare for future health emergencies.
Unitaid joined a total of 5 donor countries, multilateral organizations, and foundations that announced examples of their collective contributions to address the large shortfalls in access to oxygen for patients, including those hospitalized with COVID-19, in low- and lower-middle-income countries (LMICs) around the world. Addressing global inequities in access to oxygen, since the beginning of the pandemic, Unitaid has invested US$ 83 million towards increasing liquid oxygen availability, repairing broken oxygen equipment, upskilling biomedical engineers, and supporting countries to identify needs and develop strategic national oxygen roadmaps.
Even prior to COVID-19, access to medical oxygen was inadequate to meet the needs of health systems in most LMICs. In addition to COVID-19 patients, there is a vast patient population who also need oxygen therapy, including newborns in respiratory distress, children with pneumonia, sepsis, and/or congenital heart disease, adults with tuberculosis, malaria, and/or HIV/AIDS and/or chronic respiratory conditions like COPD, and patients requiring surgery.
Prior to the pandemic, much of the world took access to oxygen for granted — however, headlines reporting oxygen shortages, and their tragic consequences, have changed this. Access to oxygen has become a key plank of the COVID-19 pandemic response. Oxygen is an essential treatment for severe COVID-19 – 75 percent of people hospitalized can survive with oxygen therapy alone. Without oxygen, these patients cannot survive.
During the pandemic, donors around the world have mobilized more than US$800 million in grant financing to help LMICs avert oxygen shortages. These investments have already helped millions of patients, and will be vital components of systems needed to respond to future health emergencies. But, they are not enough. An additional US$1 billion is needed to prevent further oxygen shortages in LMICs in the next year alone. More support from governments, foundations, high net worth individuals, and the private sector would be warmly welcomed by Unitaid. People sick with severe COVID-19 or other conditions must not be left to die simply due to a lack of oxygen in medical facilities.
Donors making announcements today include the Government of Germany, The Global Fund, the Skoll Foundation, Unitaid, and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Unitaid Press Release
US$ 83 million of investments from Unitaid to address global inequities in access to oxygen will drive long term benefits, Unitaid urges other donors to commit more funding for medical oxygen
- Unitaid’s investments of US$ 83 million in access to medical oxygen have spurred significant progress and will drive long term benefits for low- and middle-income countries
- As Chair of the ACT-A Oxygen Emergency Taskforce, Unitaid is urging other donors to commit more funding to further enhance global access to medical oxygen, save lives now and prepare for future health emergencies
- To enhance country preparedness and sustainably diversify the oxygen market, Unitaid and MedAccess are working to identify opportunities to support local and regional suppliers of liquid oxygen interested in increasing availability and affordability of medical oxygen for public procurers
Geneva, 21 June 2022 – Unitaid has invested US$ 83 million to date to address global inequities in access to oxygen in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, filling an immediate access gap for safe and affordable oxygen to those who needed it most and laying the groundwork to improve access to oxygen over the long term.
These investments support the work of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) Oxygen Emergency Taskforce, led by Unitaid, to expand sustainable access to adequate, affordable oxygen solutions such as bulk liquid oxygen, oxygen generation systems and other important oxygen equipment in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
The Unitaid-funded grants have helped to increase liquid oxygen supplies, lower costs, strengthen infrastructure, expand technical capacity, and ensure safe use of medical oxygen.
As part of broader partner efforts to assess the oxygen needs of over 100 countries and access funding available through the Global Fund, the World Bank and other partners’ funding mechanisms, Unitaid’s investments directly supported this work in 18 countries.
Among other significant progress and achievements made to date, Unitaid has procured more than US$ 15 million in emergency supplies, delivering nearly 30,000 cylinders, 2,000 concentrators, more than 5,000 pulse oximeters – an essential portable device that can detect low oxygen in the blood – and 3 PSA plants for oxygen, to 33 countries.
Thanks to Unitaid’s leadership, an agreement with two major gas companies, Air Liquide and Linde Group, was successfully brokered securing ~15% price reductions for bulk liquid oxygen versus current pricing, between 10 to 15% reductions for cylinders and up to 43% reductions in filled cylinder pricing, paving the way for long term agreements for access to liquid oxygen. With this, 19 tanks for bulk liquid oxygen for LMICs were reserved and countries such as Zambia and Ghana, were able to meet surge demand across several hospitals.
Unitaid is now exploring how to support countries to build robust oxygen systems that can meet current needs and prepare for future health emergencies, and to ensure the market is ready to respond to demand surges. For that purpose, Unitaid and MedAccess, will launch in the coming days a call for expressions of interest* to local and regional manufacturers of liquid and gaseous oxygen to receive financial and technical support to expand affordable oxygen supply in sub-Saharan Africa. The end goal is to identify opportunities to support suppliers and increase the availability and affordability of medical oxygen for countries.
But more funding is needed to scale-up medical oxygen supply and prepare countries for future health threats.
Oxygen is a lifesaving treatment but also a high-return health investment that will keep on saving lives beyond the pandemic and significantly reduce deaths among newborns, children, women in childbirth, and adults with both communicable and non-communicable diseases.
Investing in oxygen will pay dividends now and going forward, as a critical foundation for future health emergencies. Therefore, Unitaid urgently calls on other donors for more funding in medical oxygen to help close the US$1 billion funding gap in the oxygen response.
* The call for expression of interest will be published here.
About the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) Oxygen Emergency Taskforce (Oxygen Taskforce)
The Oxygen Taskforce was launched in February 2021 to bring together key partners already working to address critical oxygen gaps, as part of a coordinated COVID-19 response. The Oxygen Taskforce is led by Unitaid, under the Therapeutics Pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator. Partner organizations include Unitaid, WHO (and the Biomedical Consortium it coordinates), UNICEF, The Global Fund, the World Bank, UNOPS, the Every Breath Counts coalition, CHAI, PATH, Save the Children, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Access to Medicine Foundation, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), and the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.
Media contact:
For more information and media requests:
Sarah Mascheroni
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Email: mascheronisa@unitaid.who.int
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