Long-acting medicines for malaria, tuberculosis and hepatitis C

Preventing cervical cancer in low-resource countries

Long-acting injections to treat HIV

Unitaid and Expertise France join forces to intensify cervical cancer prevention in Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Guatemala and the Philippines

Abidjan – Unitaid and Expertise France today signed a financing agreement for the implementation of the SUCCESS project, Scale Up Cervical Cancer Elimination with Secondary prevention Strategy. Focused on cervical cancer control, the project’s objective is to strengthen screening and secondary prevention to prevent the development of cancer in women infected with human papillomavirus (HPV) who have precancerous lesions. This project will be implemented in four low- and middle-income countries representative of low-resource regions where more than 85% of the women who die from the disease today live.

SUCCESS: ensure the feasibility of early detection and management as close as possible to the population

The agreement signed today between Unitaid and Expertise France provides for three-year funding from Unitaid for a total of €22 million, with a €600,000 additional co-financing from the French government. This project is part of Unitaid’s €54 million in investment in cervical cancer prevention.  Unitaid’s investment responds to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) call for action to eliminate cervical cancer by 2030.

The SUCCESS project targets women most at risk and will be implemented in Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Guatemala and the Philippines. It will include at least 185,000 women within three years, 75,600 (40%) of whom are living with HIV. People who are immunocompromised and infected with HPV are more likely to develop pre-cancer and cancer more quickly.

SUCCESS will implement a cervical cancer control approach based on:

  • Reinforced and simplified screening,
  • Secondary prevention of cervical cancer through HPV testing and thermal ablation of precancerous lesions,
  • An intensification of the dissemination of information on this cancer to the populations concerned.

With its regional approach, SUCCESS will enable the targeted countries and beyond to scale up services to cover 70% of women concerned.

The project will be implemented by Expertise France, in collaboration with a consortium of organizations with experience and expertise in the prevention and control of cervical cancer: Jhpiego and the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC). The project will also rely on the technical support of the National Cancer Control Institutes: the French National Cancer Institute (INCa), National Cancer Institute (NCI) – United States, National Cancer Center (NCC) – Japan and National Cancer Institute (INCA) – Brazil.

Cervical cancer: one of the easiest cancers to prevent and treat, but the fourth most common cancer among women in the world

In 2018, according to the WHO, cervical cancer accounted for 570,000 new cases and 311,000 deaths. This cancer is particularly deadly among women living with HIV, especially those who are not on antiretroviral treatment or who started treatment late. This cancer is mainly caused by HPV. Some genotypes of this virus lead to the formation of precancerous lesions, which are targeted in the intervention strategy of the SUCCESS project. Nine out of ten women who die from cervical cancer live in low- and middle-income countries where access to information about prevention is limited.

Cervical cancer is curable if diagnosed at an early stage. The WHO’s new global strategy for 2020-2030 on the elimination of cervical cancer highlights the crucial role of cervical cancer screening and treatment.

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Press contacts:

Unitaid: Sarah Mascheroni, mascheronisa@unitaid.who.int, +41 79 728 73 11

Expertise France: Nadia Hamidouche, nadia.hamidouche@expertisefrance.fr, +33 (0)6 77 27 27 72 13

The Hummingbird. Unitaid News – December 2019

New HIV medicines to transform lives

Unitaid celebrates HIV milestones and explores cutting-edge medicines and tests

Geneva — Unitaid and partners have much to celebrate on the occasion of World AIDS Day 2019–milestones that deliver on the principles of innovation for all, access to health products in record time, and the central role of communities living with the disease in making the response more effective and efficient.

South Africa has launched a state-of-the-art HIV treatment that was made possible by a number of Unitaid-supported projects in concert with communities. The move will allow one in five people on HIV treatment globally to switch to a simpler, more effective and affordable regimen that also minimizes the development of drug-resistance. This is why Unitaid refers to its projects as catalytic: small, time-limited investments that save and improve the lives of millions.

On the prevention and testing side, MTV Staying Alive Foundation and Solthis launched the French version of the award-winning TV series MTV Shuga in the Ivory Coast. The script weaves messages about HIV prevention and self-testing into the storylines to raise awareness among youth, building on the success of the show among English-speaking audiences. Viewers of MTV Shuga are twice as likely to get tested for HIV six months after watching the drama, according to a World Bank study.

Over the past five years, Unitaid has more than doubled its HIV portfolio, which hit US$510 in 2019. Investments supported the introduction of  affordable self-testing in Africa, new antiretroviral regimens, and prevention for TB and HIV—innovations that have reached many millions of people. All of these innovations were introduced with the close involvement of civil society. Together with countries and partners such as WHO, the Global Fund and PEPFAR, Unitaid will continue to seek out innovative solutions that make the best use of healthcare resources and are easy for countries and people living with HIV to use.

The next stop is the Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases in Africa (ICASA), taking place in Kigali, Rwanda, 2-7 December. A Unitaid delegation will be present to share insights and plans for tackling the epidemic and its related diseases. Alongside partners, the organization will discuss innovations such as test-and-treat kits for less than US $1 to prevent cervical cancer; medicines and tests to reduce AIDS deaths; and long-acting technologies expected to transform HIV treatment as we know it.

Unitaid’s HIV Disease Narrative 2019, launched on the occasion of World AIDS Day, provides a glimpse of what the future might hold for the fight against HIV and related diseases. The report examines the potential for innovations such as immunotherapies; new and better-adapted pediatric medicines like Quadrimune, an HIV medicine for babies that comes in strawberry-flavored granules and is awaiting FDA and WHO approvals; long-acting medicines such as patches or injections; medicines for sexually transmitted infections that do not respond to mainstay drugs, and better ways to cure noncommunicable diseases in people living with the virus.

For media enquiries:

Carol MASCIOLA, masciolac@unitaid.who.int

HIV treatment for children to be produced for under one dollar a day

Unitaid and DNDi celebrate partnership with Cipla on World AIDS Day

Geneva – The Indian pharmaceutical company Cipla has announced its commitment to price the ground-breaking new product Quadrimune, a “4‑in‑1” treatment for young children with HIV, at below a dollar a day. Quadrimune is under review by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in children between 3 and 25 kg bodyweight.

This pleasant-tasting, heat-stable, fixed-dose combination of four antiretrovirals (ARVs) for infants and young children with HIV was developed in partnership by Cipla and the not-for-profit Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) with financial support from Unitaid and other donors. If it receives FDA tentative approval in 2020, the 4-in-1 will represent a major improvement in the treatment of HIV in very young children and will replace older, bitter-tasting medicines, medicines requiring refrigeration, or regimens that are no longer recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).

“Cipla is happy that over the past 20 years it has contributed to making adult antiretroviral drugs available at affordable prices for patients throughout the developing world, in particular Africa, and has pioneered the development of paediatric fixed-dose combinations of ARVs for children,” said Dr. Yusuf K. Hamied, chairman of Cipla. “Over the years, the treatment of children with HIV has been neglected. In order to ensure faster access, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, our product Quadrimune, once approved, will be offered for less than one dollar a day for children.”

“Children living with HIV have been neglected for too long, with the recommended treatment for years consisting of a bitter-tasting syrup with 40 percent alcohol content,” said Dr. Bernard Pécoul, executive director of DNDi. “Mothers were often forced to bury the syrup in the sand to keep it cool, because it required refrigeration. The new Quadrimune is pleasant-tasting, heat-stable, and easy-to-use. We will finally have a treatment designed specifically for infants and young children, who are at the highest risk of dying if they do not receive treatment.”

An estimated 1.8 million children are living with HIV, almost 90 percent of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa. Only an estimated 54 percent of these children have access to HIV treatment and more than 300 children still die from the disease every day. Inappropriate, suboptimal treatment options have contributed to low treatment coverage.

Quadrimune contains the WHO-recommended ARVs abacavir, lamivudine, lopinavir, and ritonavir in the form of granule-filled capsules. If approved, parents and caretakers will be able to administer the drugs to children by sprinkling the granules on soft food, water, or milk. The 4-in-1 does not require refrigeration and is easy to administer to infants and children of different weights and ages.

Cipla will provide Quadrimune at an ex-factory price of US$ 15 per pack of 120 capsules, giving a price of US$ 1 per day (US$ 360 per year) for children in the medium weight bracket of 10 to 13.9 kg, with prices lower, at 50 US cents per day, for younger children and infants.

“This optimal child-adapted all-in-one ARV regimen, which meets WHO recommendations, will be a game-changer for millions of infants and young children,” Unitaid Executive Director Lelio Marmora said. “Unitaid is proud to have supported from day one the development of this new 4-in-1 treatment that is safe and effective, adapted and palatable, easy-to-use and with no requirement for refrigeration. Once adopted, this innovative formulation will enable great advances in the treatment of the youngest kids.”

Since 2013, WHO has recommended regimens that include a class of ARVs called protease inhibitors, which includes lopinavir/ritonavir (LPV/r), for infants and young children. Cipla and DNDi worked closely to develop Quadrimune, testing over 30 formulations of abacavir, lamivudine, and LPV/r, ensuring good taste-masking, and selecting one that met the standards required to enable regulatory submission.

The 4-in-1 could be the first of several new treatment options now on the horizon for young children with HIV.

“We hope that Cipla’s commitment to affordable Quadrimune will enable rapid uptake of this medicine,” Dr. Pécoul said.

For media enquiries:

Unitaid identifies the most promising medicines and tests to advance HIV goals

Geneva — Unitaid’s HIV Disease Narrative 2019, launched on the occasion of World AIDS Day, provides a glimpse of what the future may look like for HIV innovation.

The report highlights products such as implants that release antiretrovirals for months at a time; rapid diagnostic tests for acute HIV infections; and medicines for sexually transmitted infections that do not respond to frequently used drugs.

The report also looks at the emerging problem of noncommunicable diseases. As more people are put on HIV treatment, the world will have to learn how to manage health problems such as hypertension and diabetes among those living with the virus. Better care will be needed to provide the best possible quality of life.

Unitaid is improving the global HIV response with better prevention, testing and treatment for the people living with the virus and related diseases such as cervical cancer and hepatitis C. Building on the successes of the past ten years, Unitaid will continue to identify and guide innovations that can bring about the end of the epidemic.

Over the past five years, Unitaid has worked to fortify and expand the global HIV response by investing in key areas. Unitaid introduced affordable self-testing in Africa, new antiretroviral regimens, and prevention for TB and HIV—innovations that have reached many millions of people.

All of these innovations were introduced with the close involvement of civil society. Working with countries and partners such as WHO, the Global Fund and PEPFAR, Unitaid will continue to seek out innovative solutions that make the best use of healthcare resources and are well adapted to the low- and middle-income countries where they are used.

For media enquiries:

Carol MASCIOLA, masciolac@unitaid.who.int