World TB Day 2025 quiz: Innovating to end TB

Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email. An experimental hormone-free birth control pill for men appears to be safe and well-tolerated in an early-stage, in-human study and successfully prevented sperm production in mammal studies. The drug, YCT-529, is being developed by YourChoice Therapeutics and Quotient Sciences and works by interfering with the vitamin A signaling necessary for sperm production. There are no male birth control pills available, but, in the future, an option like YCT-529 could help prevent unwanted pregnancies and reduce the burden traditionally placed on women for contraception.Last week, an international team of researchers reported that their Phase 3 clinical trial found that a vaccine that protects against five strains of meningitis is safe and effective, a finding that supports is use in routine childhood immunization programs in high-burden countries. The trial was conducted in babies and toddlers in Mali, one of the countries in the sub-Saharan African meningitis belt, so-called because of its high incidence rates and regular large-scale epidemics of meningitis. Previous trials demonstrated positive results for the vaccine in children over 12 months and adults. The vaccine could be a game-changer for meningitis control, and its affordability would also enable broad scale-up.Gilead recently published early data suggesting that a new formulation of its drug, lenacapavir, could be used to prevent HIV infection with just one shot per year. These exciting results follow data published last year that the drug could provide virtually complete protection with a twice-a-year shot. Reducing the dosage even further will only improve adherence by reducing the cost and burden on those taking the drug and their health care providers. The two-dose formulation of the drug is already under regulatory review, but Gilead is planning a Phase 3 trial of the once-yearly version to begin later this year.

Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email. A research team at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia has discovered a key process that could provide new insight into designing more effective antimalarial drugs, as rising antimicrobial resistance complicates the ongoing global fight against malaria by rendering current drugs less effective. One promising strategy to combat poor absorption or retention of drugs in the body is the use of prodrugs that can offer a more targeted attack. However, these prodrugs need to be activated, typically by an enzyme. By identifying the primary enzyme that activates multiple antimalarial drugs, these new findings could enable the development of prodrugs for malaria, which, by design, would also be less likely to lead to the emergence of drug resistance.New research shows that wastewater sampling, including in sewer systems and on airplanes, could predict new viral and bacterial outbreaks and the emergence of new variants of pathogens weeks or even months before they become widespread, in addition to being less invasive, more efficient, and faster than current methods. A new study from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention demonstrates how it was able to use wastewater sampling to detect the presence of avian flu in 2022 weeks before the virus was detected in poultry and then wild bird populations. Widespread and regular wastewater sampling would enable public health authorities to better surveil population and community health and, on a more micro level, help health care providers provide more accurate diagnoses and care for patients.  Last week, the Pediatric Praziquantel Consortium announced the first administration of its new pediatric schistosomiasis treatment to a preschool-aged child in Uganda, marking a critical step toward closing the long-standing treatment gap for young children for this parasitic disease, which affects millions of children in sub-Saharan Africa. The innovative therapy, designed specifically for children between three months and six years, is also child-friendly, palatable, and heat-stable, making it especially well-suited for this population and region. The rollout is part of a program aimed at integrating the treatment into health care systems and preparing for its broader rollout across the region, starting with Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Tanzania, and Senegal.