News: Announcement

Ahead of the 2nd Global COVID-19 Summit tomorrow, GHTC Executive Director Jamie Bay Nishi shared the coalition’s commitments to unlocking funding to advance research to expand the pipeline of affordable, easier-to-deploy COVID-19 technologies for low-resource settings and strengthen regionally distributed research and development (R&D) capacity.Her video remarks are below, followed by GHTC’s full commitments across the three summit thematic pillars: Full commitmentsVACCINATE THE WORLD: The Global Health Technologies Coalition will amplify evidence of gaps in the upstream vaccine research and development (R&D) aspects of the COVID-19 response and work to ensure political support and additional resources to support R&D of next-generation vaccines designed to better reach the last mile and address emerging variants and for strengthening regional research and manufacturing capacities. This includes expanding multisector support for research and clinical trials to accelerate vaccine development, strengthening vaccine prequalification and regulatory authorities to facilitate market entry while ensuring quality and safety, and mobilizing sustainable financing for regional vaccine manufacturing hubs that can be deployed for the COVID-19 response but also effectively leveraged and optimized for a broader range of health areas.SAVE LIVES NOW: The Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC) will hold public- and private-sector stakeholders accountable to unlocking funding and advancing research to expand the pipeline of affordable, easy-to-deploy diagnostics and therapeutics, particularly for use in low-resource settings. GHTC will galvanize its partners to push for more efficient prequalification and regulatory reviews of novel COVID-19 technologies and work to remove policy barriers to support bolstered testing, surveillance, genomic sequencing, and data sharing to better detect and monitor emerging variants. GHTC will also amplify the calls by its global partners for strengthened regional capacities to manufacture all types of medical countermeasure products.BUILD BETTER HEALTH SECURITY: The Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC) supports the creation of a new pandemic preparedness fund and will leverage its platform and network of partners to highlight how the fund should be utilized to bolster country and regional pandemic research and development (R&D) capacities including surveillance, laboratory infrastructure, clinical trial, manufacturing, regulatory capabilities, pharmacovigilance, and supply chain management. The Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) is a ready-made platform for countries to identify and articulate their capacity gaps and financing needs. GHTC, through the Global Health Security Agenda Consortium, is engaging the GHSA R&D Task Force to develop a tool that enables countries to assess their R&D pandemic preparedness capabilities. The Task Force also serves as a platform to elevate perspectives of national and regional stakeholders, especially those from low- and middle-income countries, to ensure global investments and new sustainable financing for pandemic preparedness are allocated to filling key national and regional R&D capacity gaps.

A coalition of more than 100 leading global health and research organizations is calling on Congress to provide $250 million in new funding to the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to establish a fund to supercharge global health innovation.In an open letter to congressional appropriators, these organizations urged policymakers to appropriate this dedicated innovation funding to USAID in the fiscal year 2023 State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs spending bill. This new influx of resources, which advocates are calling the Supporting Innovative Global Health Technologies Fund, or SIGHT Fund, would enable USAID to expand its support of research and development (R&D) of products for a range of global health challenges.The letter highlights how USAID has for decades excelled in facilitating R&D of new vaccines, drugs, and other tools as part of its broader global health mission. But it also notes how stagnant budgets and growing needs have squeezed the agency, resulting in a worrisome trend of USAID investment in R&D declining as a proportion of overall global health spending. The signatories make the case that this new dedicated source of R&D funding would reverse this decline and better enable the agency to make bold, forward-looking innovation investments to stock the global health toolbox of tomorrow.The request for an initial appropriation of $250 million for the SIGHT Fund is an amount representing less than 3 percent of current US spending on global health, yet this modest investment could catalyze the development of game-changing tools that could accelerate progress against both emerging and enduring global health challenges—saving US taxpayer dollars, maximizing the impact of programs, and ultimately improving and saving lives around the world. The full text of the open letter can be viewed here and the full list of signatories is below:1,000 Days3rd Stone DesignAdvancing SynergyAmerican Academy of PediatricsAmerican Society of Tropical Medicine and HygieneAVACBay Area Global Health AllianceBEMPU HealthBetter World CampaignBilimetrix s.r.l.BIO Ventures for Global HealthBoston University Social Innovation on Drug Resistance ProgramBridges to DevelopmentBugworksBurnet InstituteCatalysts for ChangeCenter for Global Health InnovationCenter for Innovation in Global Health, Georgetown UniversityChristian Connections for International HealthCoalition for Epidemic Preparedness InnovationsCoalition for Health Research and DevelopmentCONRADConsortium of Universities for Global HealthCORE GroupDeutsche Stiftung WeltbevoelkerungDr Marri Channa Reddy FoundationDrugs for Neglected Diseases initiativeElizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS FoundationEmory UniversityEpiPointeEqualize HealthFINDFREO2 FoundationFriends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and MalariaGlobal Antibiotic Research and Development PartnershipGlobal Health CouncilGlobal Health Innovative Technology FundGlobal Health StrategiesGlobal Health Technologies CoalitionGlobal ImpactHarvestPlusHemex HealthIAVIInfectious Diseases Society of AmericaInnovative Vector Control ConsortiumInternational Business & Technical Consultants, Inc.International Partnership for MicrobicidesInternational Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung DiseaseInternational Vaccine InstituteJohns Hopkins Center for Health SecurityKNCV Tuberculosis FoundationLinux Foundation Public HealthLittle Sparrow Technologies, Inc.Lucky Iron FishMakerere University School of Public HealthManagement Sciences for HealthMbarara University of Science and TechnologyMedical IMPACTMedicines for Malaria VentureModula S Inc.MRIGlobalMustERONE CampaignPAIPanAfricarePandemic Action NetworkPanorama GlobalPartners In HealthPATHPathfinder InternationalPolicy Cures ResearchPopulation CouncilPopulation Services International Research!AmericaRESULTSRice University Institute for Global Health TechnologiesSabin Vaccine InstituteSanaria Inc.Seed Global HealthShot@LifeSightsaversSinapi BiomedicalSmile TrainSociety for Children Orphaned By AIDS Inc.South Africa Health Technologies Advocacy CoalitionSpeak Up AfricaTB AllianceTexas Children's HospitalThe BroadReach GroupThe END FundThe Task Force for Global HealthTreatment Action GroupUCSF Institute for Global Health SciencesUnited to Beat MalariaUnlock AidVanderbilt Institute for Global HealthWashington Global Health AllianceWCG CaresWhat To Expect ProjectWhite Ribbon AllianceWomen in Global HealthZenysis

The fiscal year 2023 (FY23) budget request released yesterday by the White House includes some much needed and welcome increases to several global health and research and development (R&D) priority accounts but does not meet the moment in terms of putting forth a comprehensive commitment to growing resources across all these essential programs. The Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC) is disappointed to see FY23 requests for some critical accounts fall below FY22 enacted levels. The administration has proposed incredibly ambitious multi-year, multi-agency mandatory—or automatic—funding to bolster pandemic preparedness but must lay out a path forward marrying these new visionary commitments with increases to discretionary—or annually determined—global health and R&D spending.Unprecedented global challenges demand unprecedented American leadership—including unprecedented investments in global health and R&D programs, both those newly proposed to respond to emerging challenges and those with decades of proven impact. These investments are not just numbers on a page: they directly translate into lives saved from the enduring epidemics of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria; ground gained against the COVID-19 pandemic still smoldering as 40 percent of the world’s population awaits a first vaccine dose and we live under constant threat of new variants; strengthened health systems worldwide to detect, prevent, and respond to the next health threat; and new and improved health tools designed for impact everywhere in the world they are needed. The International Affairs Division of the FY23 budget request released today includes some hopeful steps in that direction, including a significantly increased US contribution to the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; new global health security commitments, including the establishment of a financial intermediary fund for pandemic preparedness; and increases to malaria, neglected tropical diseases, and international family planning programming at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and State Department. Other critical global health accounts, however, are flat funded or even cut relative to FY22 enacted levels in the request. GHTC is disappointed that the budget request does not include comprehensive funding increases across the entire State Department and USAID Global Health Programs account. This sends a mixed message from the White House and does not reflect the administration’s stated commitment to global leadership on a broad range of health challenges. Flat funding or cutting global health programs under more budgetary strain than ever due to the continued impact of COVID-19 does not meet the moment. The $6.5 billion in five-year funding requested for the State Department and USAID through a new mandatory funding pathway, which includes a strong US commitment to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, is an exciting proposal. The White House must now work with congressional appropriators to ensure this and other mandatory spending for pandemic preparedness proposed in the budget request is realized alongside increases to discretionary spending accounts. Reaching our global health goals in the months and years to come requires robust investments in R&D today, and GHTC welcomes the increases proposed in the budget framework for the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Center for Global Health and National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, and the transformative level of new mandatory spending proposed for pandemic preparedness through these and other agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services. However, of the $4.3 billion increase requested for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), $4 billion would be used to boost the new Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, leaving very little room for increases to other NIH institutes and centers. GHTC welcomes the increase proposed for the Fogarty International Center but is disappointed that the FY23 request for other NIH institutes and centers vital to global health R&D, including the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, and National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, fall below FY22 enacted levels. There are some bright spots and visionary proposals included in the White House’s FY23 budget request, and the proposed mandatory spending for pandemic preparedness across the US government would be transformative—if enacted by Congress. However, the administration missed a crucial opportunity to lay out a comprehensive approach to boosting our global health and R&D capabilities through increases to discretionary spending in this request. At this moment of intersecting global health crises—layered on top of so many other pressing international challenges—maintaining hard-won gains against enduring global health threats and preparing for new threats to come will require even bolder investments. GHTC looks forward to working with champions in Congress to ensure that the final FY23 budget rejects any cuts relative to FY22 and sustains a pathway toward funding commensurate with unprecedented global needs.

As the G20 Health Working Group kicks off with its initial meeting next week under the Indonesian presidency, health officials from the world’s top economies will be discussing commitments and systemic changes to better prepare for future health threats and improve health equity.As G20 leaders consider broader reforms to reimagine our global health architecture, GHTC urges them to prioritize the following actions to bolster health research and development (R&D).Build sustainable financing structures to mobilize new resources for R&D to address both emerging and enduring global health challenges. G20 nations should fully fund existing multilateral R&D mechanisms for pandemic preparedness and response including the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator—which faces an immediate need of US$840 million to close upstream R&D gaps for vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics—and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations—which received just over $1.5 billion of its $3.5 billion replenishment ask to fulfill its next five-year strategy to ramp up vaccine R&D for potentially epidemic threats. G20 countries should also increase assessed contributions to the World Health Organization to at least 50 percent of the base budget by 2029 to enable stronger core funding for its Science Division and programs to facilitate product access, as well as create a new pandemic preparedness fund that could be tapped to bolster regional and national R&D capacity. Beyond addressing epidemic threats, G20 nations should increase investments in R&D for poverty-related and neglected diseases and antimicrobial resistance (AMR), including supporting the Global AMR R&D Hub, to close key gaps in our arsenal of tools.Improve coordination and alignment of R&D actors, while centering the needs of vulnerable populations. G20 nations must support reforms to better integrate R&D into existing health preparedness governance frameworks. The G20 should push for targeted amendments to the International Health Regulations to facilitate R&D coordination and information sharing and modify the Joint External Evaluation process to add a new indicator to better assess national R&D readiness. As pandemic framework negotiations advance, new norms and standards must also be set to govern pathogen and data sharing, research and regulatory coordination, and procurement to facilitate more equitable access to resulting medical countermeasures. Research funders should also prioritize targeted investments in R&D to address the unique needs of pediatric populations, pregnant and lactating people, and other vulnerable populations who are too often neglected in R&D efforts.Scale up manufacturing capacity for vaccines, treatments, and other health technologies in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). G20 nations should bolster local and regional manufacturing capacity in LMICs through investments and technical support. These investments in manufacturing capacity strengthening must also be coupled with regulatory improvements and commitments by private companies and governments to step up support for technology transfer and workforce development so new innovations can be produced safely and rapidly at scale.It is GHTC’s hope that G20 nations will use this inaugural meeting to chart a new path toward building a more resilient, fit-for-purpose, and equitable R&D ecosystem of the future. For a more detailed look at GHTC recommendations to G20 health leaders, view this document.