Unitaid invests in groundbreaking technologies to help patients succeed in TB treatment

Geneva – The KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation and Unitaid signed a US$ 13.9 million grant agreement on Tuesday to increase the use of smart pillboxes and mobile technology, aiming to help patients adhere to their medicines and raise the world’s plateauing cure rates for TB.

“This project takes a familiar device, the mobile phone, and turns it into an innovative disease-fighting tool,” Unitaid Executive Director Lelio Marmora said. “So many more people will be able to adhere to the long treatment and return to good health with the support of this technology.”

The ASCENT project, starting this month and running through 2022, will pilot three types of devices and create a global market and implementation plan for them. The devices are:

  • pillboxes that send a message to a monitoring clinic every time the patient opens it up to take their medicine.
  • a video application that helps patients film themselves taking their medicine, and then sends the video to the clinic.
  • an application that helps patients send an SMS to the clinic every time they take their dose.

The project will be implemented in five countries: Ethiopia, Philippines, South Africa, Tanzania and Ukraine. KNCV will work with partners The Aurum Institute, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and PATH.

One of the difficulties in curing tuberculosis is the long treatment. Patients have to take medicines anywhere from six months to two years. After a few months of treatment, many patients feel better and stop taking their medicine. As a result, the illness returns, and the bacteria gets an opportunity to develop resistance to the tuberculosis drugs.

“KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation is excited and honored to lead the Unitaid-funded ASCENT project,” said Kitty van Weezenbeek, executive director of KNCV. “We look forward to working with national TB programs, patient representatives and our consortium partners to bring digital adherence technology to scale.”

Unitaid is investing in a host of new TB interventions, including:

  • new drug formulations for children who have multidrug-resistant TB
  • diagnosis through gene sequencing, a new technology that can analyze the genes of a patient’s particular tuberculosis bacteria and determine which drugs will work the best against it.

For more information:

Rwanda and Unitaid to collaborate on health innovations including screen-and-treat tools to prevent cervical cancer

Kigali – The Ministry of Health of Rwanda, Unitaid and Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) launched a project aimed at preventing cervical cancer in Rwanda at an event led by the Minister of Health Dr. Diane Gashumba.

“Rwanda is a leading early adopter of innovation. Unitaid is delighted to bring affordable and innovative solutions to prevent cervical cancer cases in Rwanda, empowering girls and women to lead healthy lives,” Unitaid Executive Director Lelio Marmora said.

Unitaid recently signed a $33 million grant with CHAI to develop screen-and-treat solutions for preventing cervical cancer in low-resource settings for less than $1. Rwanda is among the first countries where these innovations are being implemented; the project complements Rwanda’s human papillomavirus vaccination efforts that have reached 93% of girls aged 12 years old.

“Cervical cancer can be prevented if caught early. The Government of Rwanda is pleased to join forces with Unitaid in bringing affordable screen-and-treat innovations to girls and women in Rwanda,” Dr. Gashumba said.

Unitaid and Rwanda’s Ministry of Health further signed an agreement to collaborate on better and more affordable health solutions for the people of Rwanda and beyond. The memorandum of understanding positioned Rwanda as a “champion of innovation acceleration in health” and provides a framework for the country to continue to increase access to affordable and effective health innovations that tackle the most pressing public health problems.

The visit to Rwanda also included a meeting with H.E. Mrs. Jeannette Kagame, First Lady of Rwanda and Chairperson of the Imbuto Foundation, where fruitful discussions were held about future collaboration.

Unitaid grants are directly supporting Rwanda’s health landscape through projects inside the country, and indirectly, through many other investments that develop health innovations and create the conditions for them to be widely introduced.

Examples:

  • Unitaid’s project with Innovative Vector Control Consortium is new-generation bed nets and insecticides to Rwanda’s fight against malaria. In 2018 alone, more than 800,000 Rwandans were protected with the new insecticides, including nearly 12,000 pregnant women and 118,000 children under five. Introduced at full scale, the new insecticides could avert more than 2 million cases of malaria in Rwanda between 2020 and 2024.
  • Unitaid’s project with Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation was the first to introduce integrated point-of-care early infant HIV diagnosis into national laboratory networks in Rwanda. The project allowed thousands of HIV-exposed infants to be tested, initiating lifesaving treatment within two days for 98 percent of those who tested positive.
  • Unitaid accelerated access to paediatric TB medicines by helping countries update their treatment policies, promoting demand, and creating incentives for drug companies to develop new products. In 2018, Rwanda began procuring the child-friendly formulations, which are now available in all 30 districts.
  • Unitaid’s investment in the Self Testing for Africa (STAR) project helped shape the first WHO guidelines on HIV self-testing in 2016. Rwanda now includes self-testing in its national guidelines.

For more examples please refer to the following URL: Rwanda impact note

For more information: Priyamvada CHUGH, chughp@unitaid.who.int

Annual report: Unitaid pushes the boundaries of global health innovation

Geneva – Unitaid is pleased to present its latest annual report, which shows the organization deepening and diversifying its work as a conduit, testing ground and refiner of the best global health ideas.

Unitaid’s portfolio reached US$ 1.3 billion in 2019, more than doubling its value in five years. The number of grants rose from 28 in 2014 to a record 48 grants.

“Every hard-earned milestone shows we can transform lives, in record time, by pooling the expertise of the right partners,” Executive Director Lelio Marmora said. “As we enter exciting new areas, we will continue convening governments, industry, international organizations and civil society to support a more strategic, coherent response.”

The number of organizations implementing Unitaid grants continued to climb, with more partners than ever based in the low- and middle-income countries Unitaid serves.

The organization is also cultivating novel kinds of partnerships that infuse its work with fresh ideas and resources. Unitaid’s new relationship with MTV Staying Alive Foundation, for example, is raising awareness of HIV self-testing, prevention and treatment through the popular African television series MTV Shuga. 

Recent work has built on Unitaid’s accomplishments in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of HIV/AIDS and its co-infections—and tuberculosis and malaria.

New projects focus on averting cervical cancer, a major cause of death for women living with HIV, and fighting malaria with new ways to control mosquitoes.

The past year also witnessed Unitaid’s push into new approaches to bring down the unacceptable, long-static death toll—about 1 million people a year—from diseases that often strike those with advanced HIV disease.

Many Unitaid projects support the fight against superbugs—microbes that are resistant to medicines—as well as malaria-carrying mosquitoes that can no longer be killed by common insecticides.

Covering 2018 to the present, this year’s report uses a colorful, interactive new style to help readers cut quickly to the core of Unitaid’s work.

 

The Hummingbird. Unitaid News – June 2019

Unitaid News_June 2019

Unitaid’s investment in tuberculosis hits record levels with new grant for diagnostic technologies

Geneva – The Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) and Unitaid signed a US$ 14.5 million grant Thursday to deploy a powerful new technology in the diagnosis of drug-resistant tuberculosis.

The Seq&Treat project will pilot next-generation genome sequencing, an innovation that provides fast, accurate diagnosis of drug-resistant TB. Better diagnosis enables patients to get the right treatment earlier, and could help raise the world’s very low cure rate for the disease.

The technology also has the potential to be an effective weapon in the fight against drug-resistant superbugs, which develop when medicines are misused.

The new investment is part of a dramatic expansion in Unitaid’s TB portfolio, which has nearly doubled over the past few years and is on track to hit US$ 300 million in 2020.

“New technologies offer a phenomenal pathway to test and treat more people for tuberculosis, including drug-resistant TB, while strengthening health systems,” said Lelio Marmora, Unitaid’s executive director.

The three-year Seq&Treat project will be implemented in Brazil, China, Georgia, India and South Africa. FIND will work closely with civil society organizations in those countries to make communities familiar with the project and its aims, and to facilitate transition and scale-up. FIND will also leverage relationships with global civil society organizations to advocate for improved access to diagnostics.

In 2017, only a quarter of the estimated 558,000 people with drug-resistant TB started treatment, and less than 14 percent were cured.

Sequencing-based tests can produce results in 48 hours, a vast improvement over  culture-based tests that require up to eight weeks. The technology could also yield large savings in treatment costs, because it enables clinicians to prescribe the right medicine to patients from the outset of their treatment.

Sequencing devices also support integrated approaches to health care; they can be used to diagnose multiple diseases at the same time, which can lead to a cure for more patients.

“Integrated approaches are a strategic priority for Unitaid and support the UN Sustainable Development Goals. With this type of project we are seeking to invest in products that impact health systems,” Unitaid Board Chair Marisol Touraine said.

Unitaid’s is the largest multilateral investor in TB research and development, a reflection of the organization’s commitment to confront the world’s leading infectious killer.

For more information: Carol MASCIOLA, masciolac@unitaid.who.int

Unitaid’s Board welcomes new leadership and acknowledges strong achievements

Seoul – The Unitaid Executive Board elected a new leadership, reflected on its midterm strategy review and discussed ways to increase impact until the end of its strategy in 2021 and beyond.

The Board’s 32nd meeting opened with remarks from Korean Vice-Minister Kim Ganglip of the Ministry of Health and Welfare and Deputy Minister for Multilateral and Global Affairs Kang Jeong-sik of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

The Board thanked the outgoing Board Chair Ambassador Marta Maurás Pérez and Vice-Chair Ms. Sarah Boulton for their strategic guidance over the past years and elected its new leadership. The new Chair Ms. Marisol Touraine, former French Minister of Social Affairs, Health and Women’s Rights will lead Unitaid’s Board through an exciting new period. “The key to Unitaid’s future lies in facing up to new challenges in global health, with confidence in our capacity to rally partners around shared goals,” said Ms. Touraine. The Board also welcomed Ambassador Maria Louisa Escorel De Moraes as its new Vice-Chair. Ambassador Escorel is the Deputy Permanent Representative of Brazil to the UN and other international organizations in Geneva.

Adopting the midterm review of Unitaid’s 2017-2021 strategy, the board acknowledged that Unitaid is on track towards its mission to maximize the effectiveness of the global health response by catalyzing equitable access to better health products. The review confirmed that Unitaid’s investments support highly innovative health products such as medicines and diagnostic tools, which can save lives of millions of people and create greater impact for the global health response.

“Unitaid’s portfolio is robust and well aligned to global health priorities. Unitaid focuses on bringing highly effective innovations to those in need, which is critical to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals,” Executive Director Lelio Marmora said.

The next Board meeting will take place in Geneva on 20-21 November.

Read the Executive Board’s Resolutions and Minutes 

Read the Executive Board’s e-Resolutions

Republic of Korea renews its commitment to Unitaid to promote innovation in global health

Seoul – The Republic of Korea today reiterated its commitment to support Unitaid in fighting major diseases such as HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C, tuberculosis and malaria in lower-income countries.

The funding, a 25 percent increase to be provided over three years (2019-2021), will ensure access to health products such as high-quality drugs and diagnostics, objectives central to Unitaid’s mission.

“The Republic of Korea will continue to actively support Unitaid and its key strategy of promoting innovation in the global effort to achieve healthy and sustainable world,” said Oh Hyunjoo, director-general of development cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“The Republic of Korea has been an active partner of Unitaid since 2007,” said Ambassador Marta Maurás Pérez, Unitaid’s Executive Board chair. “I would like to thank the Ministry of Foreign Affairs both for the financial commitment that has been made today and for their positive contribution and engagement with us.”

Unitaid Executive Director Lelio Marmora and Oh Hyunjoo signed the memorandum of understanding outlining the country’s support following a discussion with Lee Tae-ho, second vice minister of foreign affairs, and Jeong Eun-kyeong, director of Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on creating synergies between Unitaid’s activities and South Korea’s international development goals.

Present at the signing were Ambassador Marta Maurás Pérez, Unitaid’s Executive Board chair, and Ms. Marisol Touraine, the incoming chair for the period 2019-2022.

The support of South Korea will be used to promote innovation, improve equitable access to better health products and to work toward scale-up of Unitaid global health projects.

UNICEF and Unitaid join forces to improve the health of children, adolescents and mothers

Geneva – Unitaid and UNICEF will collaborate to save the lives of more children, adolescents and mothers, an agreement formalized by a memorandum of understanding signed today.

With decades of experience fighting the biggest diseases threatening children under five, adolescent girls and young women, the newly signed memorandum will align the complementary efforts of the organizations to end malaria, pneumonia, HIV, tuberculosis and cervical cancer, to expand access to innovative point-of-care diagnostics, and to improve fever management in children.

“Unitaid and UNICEF have worked together on a number of lifesaving projects. Formalizing our collaboration will make our response stronger, faster and more effective,” Unitaid Executive Director Lelio Marmora said. 

Marmora and Fore signed the agreement. 

“Partnership and innovation have been the hallmark of the UNICEF-Unitaid partnership over many years. This new memorandum builds on this legacy, bringing together our resources, expertise and products to improve health outcomes in the communities–and for the children–who need it most,” UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta H. Fore said.

By teaming up in the fight against major disease killers in children, adolescents and mothers, Unitaid and UNICEF will work towards the Sustainable Development Goals and universal health coverage for a better tomorrow.