Malaria diagnostics market landscape – semi-annual update
New vector control products urgently needed to combat insecticide resistance, Unitaid report warns
With a growing intensity and increasing geographical spread of insecticide resistance, UNITAID’s Malaria Vector Control Landscape [PDF, 1.4 MB] highlights the need to stimulate product innovation for new solutions to tackle issue of malaria-carrying mosquitos.
It suggests that this could be achieved through increased financing for R&D for vector control products, given that the vector control market is not seen as an attractive commercial target by industry. The report also indicates that further measures to accelerate acceptance and uptake of new products in the market may also be needed, particularly as new products are likely to be more expensive than existing intervention tools.
There has been some progress to bring to the market new classes of active ingredient that are effective against current forms of insecticide resistance. However, there are still a limited number of such products available, and those that are available are more expensive on a per person basis than long lasting insecticide treated nets (LLINs) or pyrethroid IRS (insecticide spraying) programmes. Funding the purchase of initial sales of new products could enable the generation of large-scale use data to demonstrate cost-effectiveness under field conditions which would encourage purchase by major donors; and the building up of production and batch scale to improve affordability of the new products.
The report also notes that donor purchases of LLINs in 2013 and 2014 have stabilized the overall number of nets in the market, but this level is still short of the target for universal coverage, even in the most severely affected region of Africa.
- Download: Malaria vector control commodities technology and market landscape – 2nd edition. UNITAID. December 2014
Tuberculosis diagnostics technology and market landscape – 3rd edition
Malaria diagnostics technology and market landscape – 2nd edition
HIV/AIDS diagnostics technology landscape – 4th edition
Unitaid and the Global Fund announce formal collaboration
UNITAID and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria have signed a collaboration agreement around a market-shaping agenda to maximize the value for money from each organization’s investments.
Both organizations invest to increase access to health products for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria for those who need them most. UNITAID focuses on global product markets, investing to speed up and increase access to better adapted and more affordable commodities, and Global Fund investments support countries in efforts to expand health programmes, including health products.
The new agreement focuses on three main areas: More rapid development and uptake of high-quality adapted medicines and diagnostics geared toward increasing access for underserved populations; Promoting simpler treatments, including fixed-dose combinations and point-of-care diagnostics that improve adherence and reduce patients’ pill burden; Improving value for money of donor investments by achieving greater market improvements with resulting public health impact.
“Our organizations have worked together since UNITAID was created,” said Dr Philippe Duneton, Executive Director ai of UNITAID. “We have already had significant successes from our collaboration, but we have ambitions to do much more. It is now more important than ever to speed up access to the newest and best medicines and technologies for those most in need. This is what this new agreement is designed to achieve.”
Dr Mark Dybul, Executive Director of the Global Fund, added: “UNITAID and the Global Fund have complementary roles which are mutually reinforcing. From one perspective, UNITAID is upstream and the Global Fund is downstream.”
UNITAID pushes the innovation, the market-shaping for commodities and the market forces that will put them in the range of affordability, Dr Dybul said. The Global Fund is then well-positioned to work directly with countries to enable them to expand access, improving patient care and ultimately saving more lives.
Three priority areas for engagement have been identified as: Strategic cooperation in market shaping and access interventions; strategic cooperation in sharing market intelligence; and measuring market and public health impact. The priority areas will build on the successful collaboration to date and maximize the combined impact of UNITAID and Global Fund interventions.
Unitaid’s 2013 Annual Report: “Transforming Markets, Saving Lives”
Report shows UNITAID’s approach vital to remove market barriers so millions can have equitable access to new treatments for infectious diseases.
Highly-effective treatments and diagnostics for HIV, malaria, tuberculosis (TB) are emerging, some for the first time in decades, but UNITAID’s 2013 Annual Report [PDF, 4 MB] shows that considerable ‘market barriers’ need to be removed so these products can reach millions of people in low- and middle-income countries.
Entitled “Transforming Markets, Saving Lives,” this report highlights barriers – including high prices, patents, and the lack of adapted formulations – but also demonstrates how UNITAID is addressing these challenges through investments to shape markets. From accelerating market entry of new and affordable diagnostic tools to stimulating the development of paediatric formulations, the report shows that UNITAID is playing a key – and essential – role.
“This report is especially timely as it follows almost $160 million in new UNITAID market interventions announced on 6 May 2014, including investments to ensure low- and middle-income populations have access to new high performing treatments for hepatitis C and drug-resistant tuberculosis,” said Dr Philippe Douste Blazy, Chairman of the UNITAID Executive Board. “These are the first major global investments in these game-changing medicines from any large funder. “
UNITAID’s Annual Report brings together market intelligence collected by the organization over the year to inform its investments. Among the topics covered in this report:
- UNITAID is leading the way in increasing access to new diagnostics for HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB. In 2013, this included new monitoring technologies for HIV, rapid TB diagnostics and the introduction of malaria testing in the private sector. Nevertheless, the report highlights the need for more new technologies enter the market to bring down prices.
- A lack of paediatric formulations contributes to the large mortality in children from these three diseases, as described in detail in the report. While UNITAID sped up access to child-adapted medicines for HIV and TB in 2013, more work is needed.
- Promising new medicines for HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C and tuberculosis are emerging, yet the report shows that patent barriers and high prices are barriers to access for low-income populations. UNITAID is leading the way in “upstream” work to reduce prices, address fragmented markets and find an equitable solution to intellectual property issues.