Global Health Innovative Technology Fund

Summary: Every disaster and emergency presents various and specific challenges. These can include scarcity of local resources and capacity in response, lack of safety and security even for relief workers, inefficiency due to lack of coordination and collaboration, and inequity of relief services reaching those in need. Drawing from experiences of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), UNICEF, and the Global Fund -- and addressing diverse relief operations and response to large-scale natural disasters such as Sumatra Earthquake/Indian Ocean Tsunami and Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar; conflicts such as those in Somalia and Afghanistan; environmental disasters such as those in the Aral Sea and the forest fires in Indonesia; infectious diseases outbreak/pandemic such as Ebola Virus Disease and COVID-19 – this presentation highlights improvements seen in recent years and points to more efforts needed based on lessons learned. Improvement can be accelerated through innovation and technology, especially in information and data management, communications, and logistics. More efficient and effective global and local architecture, coordination, and collaboration mechanisms are also critical to maximizing impact in response to emergencies.

Reducing the burden of infectious diseases that affect people in the developing world requires sustained collaborative drug discovery efforts. The quality of the chemical starting points for such projects is a key factor in improving the likelihood of clinical success, and so it is important to set clear go/no-go criteria for the progression of hit and lead compounds. With this in mind, the Japanese Global Health Innovative Technology (GHIT) Fund convened with experts from the Medicines for Malaria Venture, the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative and the TB Alliance, together with representatives from the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation, to set disease-specific criteria for hits and leads for malaria, tuberculosis, visceral leishmaniasis and Chagas disease. Here, we present the agreed criteria and discuss the underlying rationale.