Unitaid to support access to monoclonal antibodies in low- and middle-income countries with new call for proposals

The deadline for proposal submission is 1 March 2024.

Monoclonal antibodies are manufactured versions of proteins that mimic those generated by the immune system to defend ourselves from diseases. They can be developed to treat or prevent a range of diseases and are already transforming modern medicine in high income countries. With their potential to provide faster, more tolerable and highly efficacious protection, they also hold great promise for addressing public health needs in low- and middle-income countries – but there is a stark global inequity in access to these products.

Very high prices, insufficient production capacity and limited visibility on demand and users’ perspectives are amongst the key barriers that limit the use of monoclonal antibodies in low- and middle-income countries. This perpetuates the lack of interest in infectious disease markets and does not incentivize innovation to simplify and reduce the cost of production and delivery.

Unitaid seeks to support efforts to demonstrate the feasibility and viability of business models that could reduce the cost of production and delivery and enable sufficient production capacity of monoclonal antibodies, to render the most promising products – including those already approved or in the development pipeline – accessible in LMICs.

The ultimate goal is to establish models for widespread and equitable access to monoclonal antibodies so they can deliver the greatest impact as they emerge from the pipeline, to complement other tools and improve the global health response to major public health needs in low- and middle-income countries.

Read more about this latest call for proposals and how to apply here.

Unitaid and KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation seek partner to improve drug-resistant TB care pathways in low- and middle-income countries

The World Health Organization issued landmark updates to multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) treatment options last year that include recommendations for the use of a novel, all-oral six-month regimen that offers better outcomes with significantly shorter treatment time. The results of the endTB clinical trial offered evidence into additional regimens that, if recommended, could enable effective, shorter MDR-TB treatment for additional populations not currently covered by six-month regimens, such as pregnant women and children.

These advances promise to radically alter outcomes for millions of people. However, new medicines and other tools are often slow to be adopted in the countries that need them most, and even when they do, most people with drug-resistant TB never get diagnosed because access to testing that can accurately identify resistance is limited.

To support rapid implementation of newer, shorter treatment regimens, Unitaid and KNCV are seeking a market access partner with a proven record of developing and executing market strategies to secure adequate, equitable access conditions for vital tools relevant to drug-resistant TB care in low- and middle-income countries.

The partner will work as a sub-grantee in the Unitaid-funded ASCENT project, led by KNCV. The partner will be responsible for mapping health technologies and identifying market inefficiencies that prevent equitable access to shorter MDR-TB regimens, conducting market analysis on an agreed set of screening, treatment and support tools, and designing and implementing a scalable and sustainable access strategy. The partner will work in close collaboration with Unitaid and KNCV, as well as other partners and international donors.

The deadline to submit a proposal is 1st February 2024. Find out more about how to apply here:

On 15 January 2024, Unitaid and KNCV TB Plus hosted a webinar to present the scope and content of the RfP and answer any process-related questions. A recording of the session can be found here: https://youtu.be/dbvlA-WU4-w

Media contacts:

For more information and media requests:

Hervé Verhoosel

Head of Communications and Spokesperson

M: +33 6 22 59 73 54

verhooselh@unitaid.who.int

Kyle Wilkinson,

Communications Officer

+41 79 445 17 45

wilkinsonk@unitaid.who.int

New child-friendly formulation of rifapentine for short course tuberculosis prevention treatment now available as Unitaid and IMPAACT4TB launch an early market access vehicle

More than 2 million children and adolescents lack preventive treatment for TB, which is needed for those living with HIV or exposed to TB at home. 

Johannesburg – A new formulation of rifapentine (P), designed especially for children by Lupin Limited, has been approved for use in tuberculosis (TB) prevention treatment options known as 3HP.* The child-friendly formulation of isoniazid (H) then can be included with rifapentine to make the regimen fully child-friendly.

The Unitaid-funded IMPAACT4TB Consortium, led by the Aurum Institute, which pioneered the introduction of shorter, rifapentine-based TB preventive treatment options, is announcing that the new formulation will reach the market at a price of US$6,53 – US$15,80, depending on the weight of a child. The affordable price also means that 3HP treatment in children is now cheaper than alternative TB preventive treatments available for children. This is the first time low- and middle- income countries will avoid a higher price per tablet for a paediatric TB formulation.

The IMPAACT4TB Consortium, since its inception in 2017, has worked to overcome barriers to access patient-friendly formulations of rifapentine-based regimens, pushing manufacturers to develop and commercialize these products. This resulted in the procurement of over 4.2 million patient courses of 3HP across 78 countries. The paediatric formulation, now available to governments and global health procurers in more than 135 countries, is water-soluble and raspberry-flavoured, making it easy to administer and more acceptable to children.

An assessment conducted within the project of the paediatric TB preventive treatment (TPT) market estimated that about 2.25 million children and adolescents need TPT every year due to their HIV status or based on exposure to TB within the home. We have not met the targets for TPT in children, placing millions of children at risk of developing TB. The new paediatric formulation is expected to improve access for all children.

IMPAACT4TB will catalyse the uptake of the paediatric product through an Early Market Access Vehicle (EMAV) of approximately 85,000 patient courses of the rifapentine 150mg single tablets that need to be coupled with isoniazid to make 3HP.

“This child-friendly formulation promises to make a significant improvement in access to TB prevention for children. Parents and caregivers deserve an easier time keeping children free from the world’s most deadly infection—and children deserve a childhood free from the shadow of TB infection,” said Tendayi Westerhof, director of the Pan African Positive Women’s Coalition, an IMPAACT4TB community partner in Zimbabwe.

“Historically, children have been marginalised in the fight against TB. We have not developed child- appropriate medicines for prevention or treatment until long after the adult versions reach the market. This innovation levels the playing field for our next generation and keeps them healthy,” said Professor Gavin Churchyard, the group CEO of the Aurum Institute.

“Child formulations are a critical but largely neglected area of child health. Because a fruit-flavoured, dispersible medicine can make the difference between a child taking their medicine or not, they can be transformative in the lives of children and caregivers affected by disease. As the leading multilateral funder of child tuberculosis research and development, Unitaid is proud to have supported this work and countless other efforts to ensure children can access the best and most appropriate medicines for TB treatment and prevention,” said Dr. Philippe Duneton, executive director of Unitaid.

“Children deserve access to the same life-saving medicine to prevent TB as adults. Our work with public and private sector organizations through the IMPAACT4TB market shaping partnerships means that today, they are finally getting that access,” said Dr. Neil Buddy Shah, CEO of the Clinton Health Access Initiative.

“The availability of Rifapentine Dispersible tablets is a testament to Lupin’s unwavering commitment to transforming lives and shaping a healthier future. It signifies our dedication to meeting unmet medical needs and our pursuit of an equitable world. With this novel child-friendly treatment, we aim for a future where innovative solutions close gaps in global health, ensuring no child is left behind in the fight against tuberculosis,” said Mr. Nilesh Gupta, managing director, Lupin.

Globally, TB disease killed 1,3 million people in 2022, more than any other infectious disease. Children 0-14 years make up 214,000 of these deaths. Children who are infected with TB, especially those under the age of 5, are at higher risk of progressing from TB infection to active TB disease compared to adults. While children comprised about 12% of TB diagnoses in 2022, they represented an estimated 16% of those killed by TB in the same year.

Evidence shows that short-course TB preventive treatment regimens are cost-effective; people taking shorter drug regimens are up to three times more likely to complete their course of TPT than those on longer regimens—leading to better outcomes and more lives saved.

*WHO currently recommends the use of 3HP in children 2 years of age and above. Dosing for younger children will be reviewed by the WHO Technical Advisory Group on dosing in Q1 2024.

Notes to editors:

About Unitaid

Unitaid saves lives by making new health products available and affordable for people in low- and middle-income countries. Unitaid works with partners to identify innovative treatments, tests and tools; helps tackle the market barriers that are holding them back; and gets them to the people who need them most—fast. Since it was created in 2006, Unitaid has unlocked access to more than 100 groundbreaking health products to help address the world’s greatest health challenges, including HIV, TB and malaria; women’s and children’s health; and pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. Every year, these products benefit more than 300 million people. Unitaid is a hosted partnership of the World Health Organization.

About the Aurum Institute

The Aurum Institute is a proudly African organisation working to advance health, science and innovation to create a healthier world for future generations. We partner with governments, the private sector and civil society to design and deliver high-quality care and treatment to people in developing communities.

About IMPAACT4TB

The Increasing Market and Public Health Outcomes Through Scaling Up Affordable Access Models of Short Course Preventive Therapy For TB (IMPAACT4TB) Consortium is led by the Aurum Institute and comprised of the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), Johns Hopkins University, KNCV the Dutch TB Foundation and the Treatment Action Group (TAG).

People living with HIV (PLHIV) and child contacts are at highest risk of contracting TB. The initial IMPAACT4TB grant looked at the safety of co-administering and dosing of 3HP and DTG and, once that was ascertained, the project moved on to introduce and roll out 3HP as an additional TPT option among PLHIV and household contacts of TB patients in 12 low-middle income countries, namely: Brazil, Ethiopia, Cambodia, Indonesia, South Africa, India, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Ghana and Tanzania.

Although the project was focused in these 12 countries, efforts were also made to ensure wider access to 3HP. These efforts saw over 60 additional countries procuring 3HP for use among eligible populations. The grant also funded studies on the use of 3HP in ART-naive patients on DTG-based regimens (DOLPHIN TOO), dosing of 3HP in children from 0-2 years (TBTC Study 35) and improved TPT service delivery, as well as community advocacy for improved TPT policy and uptake within project countries.

Note: 3HP is currently recommended for children who are HIV negative and children living with HIV on Efavirenz based regimens. Evidence is currently being generated for use in children on DTG-based regimens.

Media contacts:

For more information and media requests:

Hervé Verhoosel

Head of Communications and Spokesperson

M: +33 6 22 59 73 54

verhooselh@unitaid.who.int

Kyle Wilkinson,

Communications Officer

+41 79 445 17 45

wilkinsonk@unitaid.who.int

New preventive treatment for children cuts the risk of drug-resistant tuberculosis by more than half, in first-ever study of its kind 

  • Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is a particularly deadly and difficult to treat strain of TB that poses an elevated risk to young children who may have been infected.  
  • Two million children worldwide are estimated to be infected with a drug-resistant strain of TB. 
  • New research, presented at the Union World Conference in Paris today, shows that a single medicine taken once-daily for six months reduced the risk of developing MDR-TB disease in children by 56%. 
  • Funded by global health organization Unitaid and led by by the Desmond Tutu TB Centre, Stellenbosch University, the clinical trial was the first of its kind to investigate how to prevent MDR-TB disease in children. 
  • A fruit flavored, dispersible formulation of the key antibiotic is already widely available, thanks to parallel efforts from the Unitaid-Stellenbosch University program to optimize preventive care for children  
  • These results follow another major advance in MDR-TB treatment presented at the conference yesterday, as Unitaid-funded endTB clinical trial announced four new, all-oral, shortened MDR-TB treatment regimens that, if recommended, could be suitable for all populations regardless of age, pregnancy and common comorbidities. 
  • More than 400,000 people developed MDR-TB in 2022, yet only two in five access appropriate treatment – the new treatment regimens could help increase coverage as they are composed of drugs already available in most high-burden countries. 

Paris/Geneva – Clinical trial results presented in Paris at the Union World Conference on Lung Health today showed that a once-daily dose of a widely available antibiotic over six months cut a child’s risk of developing multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) by more than half. Funded by global health organization Unitaid and led by Stellenbosch University, the research is the first of its kind to investigate how to prevent this dangerous form of TB in children who suffer some of the most severe outcomes from the disease.  

MDR-TB is a form of the disease that has developed resistance to two or more of the first-line drugs used against it, making treatment particularly lengthy and difficult to complete. Because only two in five people access appropriate treatment and even fewer get cured, the disease continues to spread. Children are at particularly high risk, often becoming infected through close contact with an adult with the disease. Each year, an estimated two million children become newly infected with MDR-TB, which, left untreated, can develop into active disease.  

Though several existing treatment regimens can prevent the progression to TB disease in both children and adults, evidence to-date into MDR-TB prevention has been limited since no randomized controlled trials had previously been conducted. The TB CHAMP clinical trial recruited nearly 1,000 healthy children who had been exposed to MDR-TB in their homes in communities with high burdens of TB and MDR-TB across South Africa.  

“Children often wait years for an adult medicine or intervention to be adapted to their needs,” said Dr Philippe Duneton, Executive Director of Unitaid, the leading multilateral funder of TB research and development for children, which backed the development of the first and many subsequent TB medicines for children. “This research is remarkable because, if the approach is recommended by the World Health Organization, not only do we have the high-quality evidence to protect children from the most dangerous form of TB, but we have already developed a fruit-flavored, dispersible form of the treatment for children – a critical but frequently neglected last step in ensuring children will take the medicine.”  

“Once it progresses to active disease, multidrug-resistant TB treatment is long and harrowing for children and their families to endure. This research provides high-quality evidence to cut that risk in half. But what’s more, in avoiding difficult treatments, we found the intervention to be cost saving for national health systems,” said Professor Anneke Hesseling, Director of the Desmond Tutu TB Centre and the Principal Investigator of the TB-CHAMP trial, at Stellenbosch University.  

Because just 8% of all public funding for TB research and development is dedicated to children’s specific needs, research to advance solutions for children typically lags years behind adult interventions. However, the TB-CHAMP results were presented alongside the V-QUINN trial, which investigated a similar intervention for adults. Both pieces of research are expected to guide World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations for preventing MDR-TB in children and adults anticipated in the coming months. If the WHO issue a recommendation, it could be the first time in the history of TB that a child intervention is developed concurrently to an adult treatment.  

Additionally, because child medicines require additional research into adequate dosing, and need to be adapted to make them palatable and easy for children to swallow, the Unitaid-Stellenbosch University program worked in parallel to develop a child-friendly formulation which is already available for purchase. This often-overlooked element of children’s care is particularly critical in TB, as a child’s refusal to swallow bitter pills could leave the door open to the development of serious disease.  This research, coupled with child medicines means that, if recommended, optimal MDR-TB prevention for children could be rolled out without delay – though funding is urgently needed to support the contact tracing necessary to find children at risk.   

This news comes alongside another major advance to MDR-TB treatment, presented at the Union Conference yesterday. The endTB clinical trial, funded by Unitaid and led by Partners in Health, Médecins Sans Frontières and Interactive Research and Development, found three new, all-oral, shortened regimens for drug-resistant TB that were safe and effective across all populations – including children, pregnant women, and people with common comorbidities. A fourth regimen showed to be a valuable alternative for patients who cannot tolerate the key drugs that are included in nearly every current World Health Organization-recommended regimen for MDR-TB.  

These regimens could provide a much-needed complement to the currently recommended shorter treatment regimen, which is highly effective but not suitable for all groups. And because the drugs used in the endTB regimens are already registered and widely available, they could quickly translate into new alternatives for care for countless people with DR-TB, pending WHO review.  

“With more than 400,000 people newly falling ill with MDR-TB each year, we need safe, effective treatment options for every patient. We are extremely hopeful that the four treatment regimens from the endTB clinical trial will help ensure that all populations can access high-quality, shortened treatment,” said Carole Mitnick, ScD, Partners In Health Director of Research for the endTB project, Co-Principal Investigator of the study, and Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. 

The endTB trial enrolled more than 750 patients from Georgia, India, Kazakhstan, Lesotho, Pakistan, Peru, and South Africa. It included historically excluded populations like adolescents and those with comorbidities like substance-use disorders and retained participants who became pregnant during the trial.  

Together, the two studies represent major advances in the treatment and prevention of MDR-TB. These additional therapeutic options should greatly reduce sickness and death in all people at risk of this most deadly form of TB.  

Read more:

Media contacts:

For more information and media requests:

Hervé Verhoosel

Head of Communications and Spokesperson

M: +33 6 22 59 73 54

verhooselh@unitaid.who.int

Kyle Wilkinson,

Media Officer

+41 79 445 17 45

wilkinsonk@unitaid.who.int  

Landmark clinical trial redefines multidrug-resistant tuberculosis treatment options

endTB Clinical Trial Offers Multiple New Shortened Drug Regimens to Treat Adults and Children with Multidrug–Resistant Tuberculosis 

Paris, France – Clinical trial results presented for the first time today at the Union World Conference on Lung Health revealed evidence to support the use of four new, improved regimens to treat multi-drug resistant tuberculosis or rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis (MDR/RR-TB). The team—led by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Partners In Health (PIH), and Interactive Research and Development (IRD) and funded by Unitaid—formed the endTB consortium and began this Phase III randomized controlled trial in 2017.   

MDR/RR-TB is a disease caused by a TB bacterium that is resistant to rifampicin, one of the most powerful first-line antibiotics, plus/minus resistance to isoniazid. Roughly half a million people fall sick with MDR/RR-TB each year, and many die from it. Though a range of MDR-TB regimens are now in use around the world, many people are still treated with conventional treatments that are long (up to 24 months), ineffective (only 59% treatment success in 2018), and often cause terrible side effects, including acute psychosis and permanent deafness. Patients on these regimens must ingest up to 14,000 pills over the full course of treatment, and some have to endure months of painful, daily injections.  

The trial found three new drug regimens that can deliver similar efficacy and safety to conventional treatments while reducing treatment time by up to two-thirds. The endTB regimens represent important alternatives for short MDR-TB treatment and complement the use of another highly effective, shorter MDR-TB regimen, called BPaLM, which is not suitable for certain populations. If recommended by the World Health Organization, these new patient-centered treatment regimens would empower clinicians to offer shortened MDR-TB treatment regardless of age, pregnancy, and comorbidities that are common among people with MDR-TB.   

In addition, the trial supports the use of a fourth regimen as an alternative for people who cannot tolerate bedaquiline or linezolid; at least one of these two drugs is in every current World Health Organization-recommended regimen for MDR-TB.   

The endTB trial enrolled a diverse group of 754 patients from seven countries (Georgia, India, Kazakhstan, Lesotho, Pakistan, Peru, and South Africa). This included historically excluded populations like adolescents and those with comorbidities like substance-use disorders, and retained participants who became pregnant during the trial. The trial evaluated five nine-month treatment regimens, and randomization was outcome-adapted, meaning more patients were assigned to regimens that were producing better outcomes.   

“We stand on the cusp of a significant breakthrough in the battle against MDR, a disease that disproportionately affects impoverished populations around the globe. Our results offer hope to those in dire need and underscore the urgency of continued research and innovation—and accountability of private companies that receive public funds—to address diseases that too often strike the most vulnerable among us. But the cost of some drugs remains a barrier. One example is delamanid which is still priced at 12-40 times higher than it should be according to an independently estimated cost to produce the drug,” said Carole Mitnick, ScD, Partners In Health Director of Research for the endTB project, Co-Principal Investigator of the study, and Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School.   

“For far too long, MDR-TB has loomed as a formidable threat with limited, poorly tolerated treatment options, but today, we unveil evidence for multiple innovative all-oral, shortened regimens that will allow patient-centered, individualized treatment of MDR-TB. This marks a pivotal moment in the fight against a disease that has plagued vulnerable populations worldwide. What makes these results even more remarkable is the diversity, and resulting generalizability, of this Phase III randomized controlled trial,” said Lorenzo Guglielmetti, MD, Médecins Sans Frontières Director for the endTB project and Co-Principal Investigator of the study.   

“These results provide new hope for all those awaiting treatment for the most dangerous and difficult to treat forms of tuberculosis worldwide,” said Dr Philippe Duneton, Executive Director of Unitaid. “We have the gold-standard research. The drugs are already available where they are needed. If recommended, this high-quality evidence could quickly translate into better treatment options suitable for all people with drug-resistant tuberculosis.”  

The endTB clinical trial evaluated five experimental regimens for MDR/RR-TB against the standard of care in two distinct analysis populations. endTB regimens 1, 2, 3, demonstrated non-inferiority to the control in both primary analysis populations, establishing their success in treating RR-TB. Regimens 1, 2, and 3 achieved favorable outcomes in 89.0%, 90.4%, and 85.2% of participants, respectively. Regimen 5 also showed a strong treatment response at 85.6% and was non-inferior to the control’s 80.7% in one of the primary analysis populations. While consistent results in both populations are needed to formally establish non-inferiority, regimen 5 holds promise as an alternative for patients unable to receive other recommended treatments.  

True access to these new treatment options depends on removing all barriers to timely and high-quality care. These trial results could address a major barrier to care for many people and the endTB consortium will continue to advocate to improve access and affordability to quality TB care.  

To read more about the clinical trial results, please visit endTB.org.  

Press contacts:  

Eric Hansen, Director of external relations, PIH ehansen@pih.org  

Asad Taj, Press Manager, IRD media@ird.global 

Hervé Verhoosel, Head of communications, Unitaid verhooselh@unitaid.who.int  

Laura Garel, Communications Advisor, MSF laura.garel@tokyo.msf.org  

About UNITAID 

Unitaid saves lives by making new health products available and affordable for people in low- and middle-income countries. Unitaid works with partners to identify innovative treatments, tests and tools, helps tackle the market barriers that are holding them back, and gets them to the people who need them most – fast. Since it was created in 2006, Unitaid has unlocked access to more than 100 groundbreaking health products to help address the world’s greatest health challenges, including HIV, TB, and malaria; women’s and children’s health; and pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. Every year, these products benefit more than 300 million people. Unitaid is a hosted partnership of the World Health Organization.  

About MSF 

Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is an international, independent, medical humanitarian organization that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural disasters and exclusion from healthcare. Today, MSF has operations in nearly 70 countries. 

MSF has been involved in tuberculosis care for over 30 years and opened its first programmes to treat multidrug-resistant TB in 1999. MSF has TB treatment projects in 30 countries; it is one of the largest non-governmental providers of treatment for drug-resistant TB. In 2022, 17,800 people started first-line treatment for tuberculosis in MSF programmes worldwide; 2,590 patients started drug-resistant tuberculosis treatment. For more information, visit: www.msf.org.  

About PIH 

Partners In Health is a global health organization relentlessly committed to improving the health of the poor and marginalized. PIH builds local capacity and work closely with impoverished communities to deliver high-quality health care, address the root causes of illness, train providers, advance research, and advocate for global policy change. PIH began treating MDR-TB in 1995 and has since implemented community-based treatment programs for MDR-TB in multiple countries, including Peru, Russia, Haiti, Lesotho and Kazakhstan. For more information, visit: www.pih.org. 

About IRD 

IRD is a global health delivery and research organization based in Dubai that works in 15 countries, including high-burden MDR-TB countries such as Pakistan, Indonesia, and Bangladesh. The IRD team leverages process and technology innovations to address global health delivery gaps, including the use of health market innovations such as social business models to engage private providers in lung health and diabetes care, as well as the use of performance-based incentives for community screeners and treatment supporters, patient incentives to enable treatment compliance, and the use of open source information technology platforms to allow close monitoring of patient care and program quality. For more information, visit www.ird.global. 

Unitaid at the Union World Conference

Unitaid-backed programs and research studies will feature prominently at the Union World Conference on Lung Health. Highlights include the results of two major clinical trials evaluating multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) treatment and prevention. This includes the results of the endTB clinical trial, which sought to find additional, all-oral, shorter treatment regimens for MDR-TB, and the TB-CHAMP trial, which led the first gold-standard evaluation into MDR-TB prevention for children.

Additional updates from Unitaid programs will share advances in TB diagnostics, preventive therapies, child medicines and more over the course of the conference. Join us for the following sessions.


Wednesday, 15 November

endTB clinical trial results: Innovation to guide practice in MDR/RR-TB treatment: efficacy and safety results of the endTB trial 10:15–11:45

From neglect to child-friendly options: Assisting countries implement improved TB treatment for children and adolescents 10:15–11:45

  • Challenges faced by children taking anti-TB medication | 10:20–10:34
  • Additional research in improving TB drug administration in children | 11:16–11:30

TB Preventive Therapy – how far are we? 16:45–18:15

Digital adherence technologies in TB care: key results and lessons from the Adherence Support Coalition to End TB (ASCENT) trial 18:30–20:00


Thursday, 16 November

Meet the French Team: opportunities to fund TB research and implementation programmes 8:00-9:00

Pharmacokinetics studies for better treatment of TB 8:30–10:00

  • Pharmacokinetic-toxicity analysis of long-term linezolid use in children with MDR-TB | 8:41–8:48
  • Palatability preferences in children; the swish-and-spit taste panel approach for formulation development | 9:30–9:37

The Union/CDC late-breaker session on TB (treatment and clinical trials) 10:15–11:45

  • Efficacy and safety of levofloxacin preventive therapy in child and adolescent household contacts of multidrug-resistant TB: the TB-CHAMP double-blind placebo-controlled, cluster randomized trial | 10:38–10:47

Guarantee equitable and universal access to innovations in the fight against TB: Roundtable discuss at the Expertise France booth in the exhibition hall 14:00–15:00

BENEFIT Kids Satellite Session: Better Evidence and Formulations to Improved Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis Treatment in Children 18:30–20:00

Community-led “test and treat” advocacy and community engagement for pandemics: lessons from India and Zimbabwe 16:00–16:45


Friday, 17 November  

Next-generation sequencing for TB detection 7:15–8:15

The impact of digital adherence technologies on TB care: Results from ASCENT and other studies 15:00–16:30

Researchers sharing with communities: Results from the endTB trial 18:00–18:45

Upgrading the TB diagnostics toolbox – what’s needed to ensure diagnosis for all? 17:00–17:45

Panelist Discussion on:  Recent advances in TB-drug resistance detection using Next Generation Sequencing 18:30-20:00


Saturday, 18 November 

Drug sensitive TB: Treatment and Care 8:30–10:00

  • The socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in households having children with rifampicin-resistant TB: Qualitative study from South Africa, India and Philippines | 9:29-9:38

TB stigma, discrimination and equity 13:15–14:45

  • Stigma in households of children with rifampicin-resistant TB in South Africa, India and the Philippines | 13:20–13:29

Global policy and evidence for the use of targeted next-generation sequencing for the detection of TB drug resistance 13:12–14:45

  • Presentation of the primary evidence on the diagnostic accuracy, cost-effectiveness, and acceptability of targeted next-generation sequencing, generated through Unitaid’s Seq&Treat project

In a special session held in advance of the Union Conference, Unitaid and the World Health Organization will convene national TB program representatives from more than 25 high-burden countries and technical partners to discuss progress in implementation, share available results to date, and identify key implementation bottlenecks to unlock the TB response and reach the most vulnerable with affordable, accessible solutions without delay.

The Union World Conference on Lung Health is the largest gathering of researchers, policymakers, global health advocates and others involved in advancing TB response and improving respiratory health for all. Follow all our news from the week here.

Partnership report: Unitaid and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

In our newly released Partnership Report, we highlight how the Global Fund and Unitaid collaborate to accelerate equitable access to lifesaving health products that prevent, detect and treat HIV, TB and malaria. By combining Unitaid’s investments in innovative new health products with the Global Fund’s proven ability to take those tools to scale around the world, we increase return on investment, save more lives and reach the health-related Sustainable Development Goals more quickly.

The Global Fund and Unitaid each play a distinct and complementary role in advancing access to new products and approaches to save lives. Unitaid connects a broad range of partners to identify and create innovative new health products, and then brings them to market quickly and affordably for the people that need them most. The Global Fund, as one of the largest providers of key health commodities, supports over 120 countries in deploying these innovations at scale and at affordable prices.

New products and novel approaches to fight HIV, TB and malaria can transform care, averting countless cases of illness and death. But lifesaving medicines and tools will have limited impact without a concerted effort to ensure access for all who need them. Our collaboration spans all three diseases and has included ensuring equitable access to next-generation mosquito nets to stop malaria-carrying mosquitoes, game-changing treatments for HIV, and more effective TB preventive therapy.

A joint analysis by Unitaid and the Global Fund estimated the return on investment and the impact these health innovations will have on the death toll from the three diseases between 2024-2026. That review showed that health innovations maximize the impact of investments into the Global Fund and broader HIV, TB, and malaria efforts, accelerating the overall response and delivering the same reduction in deaths more than three years faster. The health and economic gains from every dollar invested in the three diseases are 16% higher with health innovations like those piloted by Unitaid and scaled up by the Global Fund.

Read the full report here.

Partnership report: Unitaid and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria