News: Announcement

The Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC) is pleased to announce that the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) has joined the coalition’s membership. IVI is an independent nonprofit international organization headquartered in Seoul, South Korea that conducts research to discover, develop and deliver safe, effective, and affordable vaccines for global public health. “IVI was founded on the belief that the health of children in developing countries can be dramatically improved by the use of new and improved vaccines,” said Jerome Kim, IVI’s Director General. “Since our founding, we’ve collaborated with the scientific community, nonprofits, governments, and industry to facilitate the development and introduction of vaccines in countries where they are most needed. We are excited to join GHTC and look forward to working with the coalition to educate policymakers about the critical importance of vaccine R&D in tackling the leading causes of disease and disability in developing countries.” IVI was established in 1997 as an initiative by the United Nations Development Programme under the recognition that there was a need for an international organization with the mandate to improve the health of children in developing nations through vaccines and vaccination. IVI operates today under an international treaty signed by 35 countries and the World Health Organization (WHO). IVI is involved in all areas of the vaccine spectrum from vaccine discovery in the laboratory to vaccine development and evaluation in the field to facilitating sustainable vaccine introduction. The institute conducts lab research from its Seoul headquarters, as well as clinical and field research in more than 20 countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Among its achievements, IVI led an international product development partnership for the inactivated oral cholera vaccine. The vaccine was prequalified by WHO in 2011, making IVI one of two nonprofit organizations that successfully brought a vaccine to WHO prequalification. “GHTC is excited to welcome the International Vaccine Institute to our membership,” said Erin Will Morton, GHTC’s Coalition Director. “Since its founding nearly two decades ago, IVI has established itself as a leading actor in vaccine research and development. We look forward to partnering with the institute to promote policies and investments that accelerate the development and introduction of lifesaving vaccines in low-income countries.” For more information about the International Vaccine Institute, visit www.ivi.int.

As global leaders are set to adopt the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) later this month, a new report calls for the United Nations (UN) and its Member States to strengthen the SDG health targets by including indicators to measure global health research and development (R&D) progress in the SDG monitoring framework. The report—Measuring global health R&D for the post-2015 development agenda—which was prepared by the think tank Policy Cures and commissioned by a group of leading global health nonprofits, includes a short list of recommended global health R&D indicators for inclusion in the global and national SDG monitoring frameworks. The report underscores the critical link between global health R&D and achieving the SDGs. It notes that the SDGs include ambitious targets for reducing child and maternal deaths and ending the epidemics of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and neglected tropical diseases, but existing global strategies that align with these targets clearly acknowledge they cannot be achieved without the development and delivery of new and improved drugs, vaccines, diagnostics, and other health tools. While the SDGs include a means of implementation target (target 3.b) to support R&D for vaccines and medicines for diseases primarily impacting developing countries, none of the official UN indicator proposals include any indicators to measure progress on the global health R&D needed to meet this and other health targets. To fill this gap and ensure the SDGs generate the innovations needed to reach the health targets, the report proposes three indicators to measure global health R&D for inclusion in the SDG global monitoring framework, as well as five additional indicators countries are encouraged to include in their national monitoring frameworks if appropriate for their circumstances. These indicators were recommended based on an extensive landscaping and consultative process to identify health R&D indicators and further analysis to refine this list based on feasibility, level of community endorsement, appropriateness, and cross-cutting potential. “Despite the importance of global health R&D to achieving the SDGs, it’s been largely ignored as part of the agenda,” said Erin Will Morton, director of the Global Health Technologies Coalition—one of the organizations that commissioned the paper. “If we want the SDGs to be successful, it is vital that Member States include robust global health R&D indicators in the monitoring framework. Without these indicators in place as we move toward 2030, we won’t be able to gauge whether we are on track to develop and deliver the next generation of health technologies needed to reach the SDGs.” In the interest of balancing the importance of advancing global health R&D with the need to achieve a manageable global monitoring framework, the report recommends three indicators for inclusion in the global framework—the first two of which can be monitored by specialized agencies through existing mechanisms at the global level, while the third can be monitored by national statistical offices: Public, private, and not-for-profit investment in R&D for the health needs that disproportionately affect people living in LMICs Number of new registered health technologies targeting the health needs that disproportionately affect people living in LMICs R&D expenditure as a percentage of gross domestic product To more comprehensively monitor global health R&D progress, the report recommends countries also adopt the following five complementary national indicators if appropriate for their circumstances: Number of new health technologies registered by the National Regulatory Authority and/or recommended by national guidelines National Regulatory Authorities participating in harmonized registration initiatives based on internationally recognized policies and standards; and sharing regulatory policies, legislation, guidelines, and information on registered products Number of formal coordination and collaboration initiatives aimed at increasing and facilitating transfer of health-related technology, including between public and private entities Number of registered clinical trials that meet international quality and safety standards Number of clinical trial sites that meet international quality and safety standards “While it is important to keep the list of global indicators manageable, it’s equally important to make sure we have the right indicators in place to effectively measure our progress toward the SDGs,” said Nick Chapman, Policy Cures’ director of research and the report’s lead author. “Inclusion of the indicators proposed in this paper would help us monitor progress in global health R&D and mobilize increased resources and political commitment to advance the health innovations needed to reach the SDGs, while creating very little or no additional burden on statistical offices.” The report was prepared by Policy Cures and commissioned by the Council on Health Research for Development (COHRED), the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND), the GHTC, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), PATH, and the TB Alliance to inform stakeholders of the importance of including robust indicators for global health R&D and advise on the most suitable indicators for inclusion.

The Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC) is pleased to announce that HarvestPlus has joined the coalition as a member. HarvestPlus is an international program that seeks to improve nutrition and public health by developing and promoting biofortified, staple food crops that are rich in vitamins and minerals, and providing global leadership on biofortification evidence and technology. “Micronutrient deficiency is a problem that adversely affects at least 2 billion people in the developing world,” said Dr. Howarth Bouis, director of HarvestPlus. “We believe that biofortification can be a cost-effective approach to tackle this problem on a large scale—making the everyday food staples that people rely on in poor regions more nutritious. To make this mission a reality, HarvestPlus works with diverse partners around the world to breed and promote micronutrient-rich staple food crops in poor countries and build a body of research that support their effectiveness. We look forwarding to partnering with GHTC and its members to educate policymakers about the benefits of biofortification and the important role science and innovation play more broadly in advancing global health.” HarvestPlus was officially launched in 2003 when it became the first recipient of grant funding for biofortification research from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. HarvestPlus is part of the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health. CGIAR is a global agriculture research partnership for a food secure future. Its science is carried out by its 15 research centers in collaboration with hundreds of partner organizations. The HarvestPlus program is coordinated by two of these centers, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture and the International Food Policy Research Institute. “Biofortification is a novel and promising approach to improve global nutrition and health, and HarvestPlus is the global leader in refining and deploying it globally,” said Erin Will Morton, GHTC’s Coalition Director. “GHTC is committed to advancing groundbreaking research and innovation across global health areas and technology platforms, so we are excited to welcome HarvestPlus’s unique voice to our growing membership.” For more information about HarvestPlus, visit www.harvestplus.org.

The Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC) is excited to announce that the UPMC Center for Health Security has joined the coalition as its 26th member. The Center is an independent nonprofit organization that works to protect people’s health from the consequences of epidemics and disasters and to ensure that communities are resilient to major challenges. “At the UPMC Center for Health Security, we examine how scientific and technological innovation can strengthen health security,” said Anita Cicero, chief operating officer and deputy director at the Center. “Our goal is to contribute independent research and analysis that will impact both policy and practice over a range of health challenges, including emerging infectious diseases, pandemic flu, and the potential for biological accidents or threats. An important part of our mission is connecting diverse communities of health and science experts, industry representatives, and government officials to strengthen collective efforts to improve health security. Therefore, we are thrilled to join the Global Health Technologies Coalition and look forward to working with GHTC and its members to advance innovations and policies that strengthen our ability to prevent and respond to existing and emerging health challenges.” Based in Baltimore, Maryland, the Center was originally founded in 1998 as an organization dedicated to diminishing the public health consequences of biological threats. In 2003, the Center was recruited to join the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and became the Center for Biosecurity of UPMC. Over the next decade, the Center expanded its work to address a broader range of issues in the health security field, including the global rise in emerging infectious diseases, a continued risk of pandemic flu, major natural disasters, dependence on vulnerable infrastructure, outbreaks of foodborne illness, and the potential for biological, chemical, or nuclear accidents or intentional threats. In 2013, the Center changed its name to the UPMC Center for Health Security to reflect these expanded priorities. “GHTC welcomes the UPMC Center for Health Security to our community of nonprofit product developers, think tanks, academic institutions, and advocacy organizations working to advance innovations that save lives,” said Erin Will Morton, Coalition Director of GHTC. “The Center’s independent research, analysis, and policy recommendations are highly valued by decision makers in the health and security fields, and the Center’s perspective will add tremendous value as GHTC educates policymakers and advocates for research and development of new tools to prevent, diagnose, and treat global diseases. For more information about the UPMC Center for Health Security, visit www.upmchealthsecurity.org.