Unitaid’s investment case 2023-2027

Preventing hepatitis C through harm reduction strategies

Hepatitis C prevention tools for high-risk populations

Catalyze the uptake of underutilized tools for hepatitis C

Journée internationale des femmes : Réduire les inégalités d’accès aux médicaments vitaux entre les hommes et les femmes

LAPaL, the Long-Acting Therapeutics Patents and Licences Database, is now available with enhanced features to track new drug development

  • An enhanced collaborative tool at hand to support access to innovative long-acting therapeutics

Seattle, 18 February 2023 – During a workshop held prior to the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), Dr. Charles Flexner, the Principal Investigator of the Long-Acting/Extended Release Antiretroviral Research Resource Program (LEAP) today announced, on behalf of all partners, a new version of the Long-Acting Therapeutics Patents and Licences Database LAPaL.

Launched in 2021 by the Medicines Patent Pool with support from Unitaid, LAPaL is a free online dynamic resource that provides information on technical features, development status and intellectual property status of selected long-acting therapeutics that could have health impact in low- and middle-income countries. LAPaL aims to facilitate collaborations in the long-acting space and advocates for access to long-acting therapeutics with potential public health benefit, by fostering development opportunities for fit-for purpose technologies to be used by all those needing them, everywhere, including in resource-limited settings.

The new version of LAPaL is enabled by a collaboration with the Centre of Excellence for Long-acting Therapeutics (CELT) of the University of Liverpool and LEAP. The platform now includes an integrated LA compounds landscape with an interactive visualisation dashboard to track long-acting therapeutics clinical development and regulatory approval status worldwide. As of now, LAPaL includes 10 long-acting platform technologies with many potential applications including HIV prevention and treatment. Today’s release includes five compounds, and more are expected in the coming weeks, including relevant combination products, multipurpose technologies and monoclonal antibodies. A dedicated team of experts will continue to curate and expand the database content based on reliable public sources of information with potential additional contributions and validation certificates from innovators.

About Unitaid

Unitaid is a global health agency engaged in finding innovative solutions to prevent, diagnose, and treat diseases more quickly, cheaply, and effectively, in low- and middle-income countries. Its work includes funding initiatives to address major diseases such as HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis, as well as HIV co-infections and co-morbidities including advanced HIV disease, cervical cancer, and hepatitis C, and cross-cutting areas, such as fever management. Unitaid is now applying its expertise to address challenges in advancing new therapies and diagnostics for the COVID-19 pandemic, serving as a key member of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, co-leading with Wellcome the Therapeutics Pillar and participating in the Diagnostics Pillar. Unitaid is hosted by the World Health Organization.

About LAPaL partners

LAPaL is hosted and coordinated by the Medicines Patent Pool in collaboration with the Centre of Excellence for Long-acting Therapeutics (CELT) of the University of Liverpool with support from Unitaid and the Long-Acting/Extended Release Antiretroviral Research Resource Program (LEAP).

Media contact:

For more information and media requests:

Maggie Zander

Communications officer

M: +41 (0)79 593 1774

zanderm@unitaid.who.int

Unitaid investment in Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (Wits RHI) and Fiotec, Joint Portfolio Level End-of-Project Evaluation, Final Report

Unitaid highlights gender gaps and calls for innovative strategies to reach all people at risk ahead of World AIDS Day

Geneva – Game-changing advances in HIV diagnostics, treatments, and prevention over the past decades have transformed care for millions of people, yet the AIDS epidemic continues to evolve. Notably, an increasingly disproportionate number of new infections are occurring in adolescent girls and young women, warned global health agency Unitaid, in advance of World AIDS Day (1 December).

To see all pictures of the WAD event, click below, on the photo:

World AIDS Day 2022

Today, with access to available tools, a person can self-test for HIV quickly and discreetly and, if positive, manage the infection with best-in-class medicines. If they are negative, they can access highly effective preventive medicines – including emerging long-acting pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, adding to the mix of effective preventive options.

Though tools are increasingly available and affordable in low- and middle-income countries, in part thanks to efforts by Unitaid and its partners to drive down prices and accelerate introduction, gaps in access and uptake are creating divergent responses.

According to a new UNAIDS report released on 29 November, inequalities are obstructing access to vital medicines and tools and hindering progress to end AIDS.

In sub-Saharan Africa, gender inequalities have had profound effects on the HIV response, with more than 60% of new HIV infections occurring among women. Adolescent girls and young women aged 15 to 24 years in the region are particularly affected and are more than three times as likely to become infected with HIV than males their same age.

Gender disparities and discrimination deprive women and girls of fundamental rights and create barriers to accessing information, services, and prevention. These gaps in care are multiplied when treatment programs fail to reach women and girls living with HIV, and often leave any children they may have at risk of HIV infection during birth or through breastfeeding.

“We cannot respond to today’s HIV crisis with yesterday’s solutions,” said Dr Philippe Duneton, Executive Director of Unitaid. “We have the tools we need to end the AIDS epidemic, but we must get creative to make sure they are optimized for use and reach everyone who needs them. Increasingly, this means placing greater focus on groups with as-yet unmet needs, such as young women and girls, marginalized populations, and children.”

“We must address the underlying sociocultural factors that create barriers if we are to close the remaining gaps in the HIV response,” said Maurine Murenga, advocate, Unitaid Board Member, and Executive Director of the Lean on Me Foundation, which works to promote health, education and human rights for children, adolescent girls, and young women in Kenya. “It’s not enough to simply make products available.” 

Unitaid and its grantees are leveraging their expertise to address remaining gaps and new challenges in the HIV response, developing strategies to generate awareness and demand for HIV tools and prevention, filling evidence gaps to ensure diagnostics and medicines can safely reach more people without delay, and optimizing technologies to simplify care.

Media contact:

For more information and media requests:

Maggie Zander

Communications officer

M: +41 79 593 17 74

zanderm@unitaid.who.int