A TIME FOR BOLDNESS IN GLOBAL HEALTH

Unitaid takes inspiration from the idea that we are all part of the human family and that no single country can view the well-being of its own people in isolation from others.

The advances we have witnessed in global health since the turn of the millennium have been truly remarkable. The sharp fall in deaths from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria over the past 15 years gives us cause for celebration. However, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted in 2015 by all heads of state and government of the United Nations (UN), are a valuable reminder that this is no time for complacency.

We must move faster to reach the most vulnerable and to target the regions with the heaviest burden of disease if we are to make serious headway.

Unitaid has carved out a special role for itself in the global effort to eliminate some of the world’s most dangerous diseases by 2030, as prescribed by SDG3, which calls for healthy lives for all.

Since its foundation in 2006, innovation and solidarity have guided Unitaid’s work, both in raising financial resources and supporting work by countries and organizations to tackle HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Unitaid acts in situations in which market forces alone are unable to provide a solution.

American economist and Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz recently wrote that “markets on their own are incapable of providing the protection that societies need. When markets fail, as they often do, collective action becomes imperative.” I believe Stiglitz’s words capture the essence of Unitaid.

Unitaid has been highly active in the past year. In February, a call for proposals was launched to help countries use international trade rules to increase access to affordable drugs. In April, our Executive Board approved new grants to help prevent malaria deaths among pregnant women and children, who are especially vulnerable to the disease. And in July, Unitaid announced the expansion of a flagship project to create incentives for HIV self-testing in Africa.

Looking to the future, Unitaid has turned its attention to reproductive, maternal and child health as well as treatment of HIV co-infections, including TB. As part of the UN Interagency Coordination Group, we are tackling the challenge posed by antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Under a new five-year strategy adopted in 2016 by the Executive Board, we are committing ourselves to promote equity and inclusiveness.

At Unitaid we do not pursue innovation for its own sake, but rather as a way to change outcomes in the real world. Medicines will not become magically available through the promotion of innovation alone. They must be made affordable and suited to the special needs of underprivileged populations.

The challenge laid down by SDG3, encompassing child and maternal health, HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, is formidable. SDG3 spells out what needs to be done for every person to enjoy the most basic of human rights: the right to a healthy life. Unitaid is leading efforts to bring this about.

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UNLEASHING A WAVE OF HEALTH INNOVATION

Rarely have the odds looked better for ridding the world of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other deadly infectious diseases.

The distinguished futurologist Yuval Noah Harari has summed up the mood: “In the struggle against natural calamities such as AIDS and Ebola, the scales are tipping in humanity’s favour.”

The numbers speak for themselves. Deaths from the three diseases have more than halved since 2000, tumbling from 6 million a year to less than 3 million. The signs are that the downward trajectory could accelerate in the years ahead. As Harari puts it, in the arms race between doctors and germs, the doctors are the ones who are running faster.

Unitaid’s Executive Board has adopted a strategy for 2017-21 to aim at the heart of the pandemics by capitalizing on our strengths as a catalyst for innovation. Unitaid’s core activity is to invest in developing and unlocking markets so that health innovations can be introduced on a massive scale, putting them in reach of everyone who needs them.

We still have a mountain to climb if we are to end the three pandemics by 2030, but the task no longer seems insurmountable.

Dramatic progress since 2000 in rolling back diseases owes a great deal to putting the best available medications in reach of millions, by making them affordable and easily accessible.

Unitaid’s three new strategic objectives are: to connect innovators who are developing better health products with the people who most need them; to overcome barriers to widespread access to the best health products; and to work with partners to ensure that our interventions are scaled up.

Unitaid will maintain its commitment to the three diseases while supporting a more integrated approach to health, particularly in reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health.

In pursuit of our strategy, we are supporting a variety of programmes, which include introducing HIV self-testing kits on a large scale; launching state-of-the-art HIV drugs in low- and middle-income countries; developing better treatments for drug-resistant tuberculosis; and working on new treatments for severe malaria and on preventing malaria deaths among pregnant women and infants.

Unitaid is also stepping up access to hepatitis C diagnostics and treatment. An estimated one-fifth of all people living with HIV worldwide are infected with hepatitis C.

Meanwhile, growing resistance to standard drugs is challenging us to protect our hard-won progress. Resistance to medication for tuberculosis, for example, is a serious threat that could derail gains made against the disease. We have responded by committing more than half our portfolio to tackling resistance so that standard treatments do not lose their power to cure. We support projects that make it easier for people to stick to treatment by offering regimens that are less toxic and require them to take fewer pills.

Today, a world without the three pandemics is entirely within our grasp. Unitaid is at the forefront of efforts to introduce the health innovations that are vital to achieving this goal. CLOSE