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Our long-standing collaboration with the Global Health Innovative Technology (GHIT) Fund
The GHIT Fund invests in global research & development partnerships through a grant-making mechanism to advance Japan’s contribution to global health. Since 2014, GHIT has been supporting the Pediatric Praziquantel Consortium through five awarded grants. We take a moment to express our gratitude to GHIT for their generous and continuous support, and reflect on this successful, long-standing collaboration.
The support provided by GHIT has helped fund the conduct of our clinical trials for a potential new pediatric treatment option for preschool-age children affected by schistosomiasis. It is also supporting our ADOPT program – an implementation research program to prepare for the large-scale access and delivery of the new pediatric medication in endemic countries, once registered.
GHIT is a key partner when it comes to defining a new mechanism for equitable and sustainable access to innovations for neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), like schistosomiasis, for the patients in need. It has been actively engaged in supporting the Consortium in developing our access plans and launch strategy, with a focus on sustainable procurement. In that regard, GHIT commissioned a mapping of potential procurement funding partners and supported with the technology transfer work.
The ‘access’ topic was also the subject of a stimulating discussion held on 25 May, in the margins of the World Health Assembly in Geneva. The session included Osamu Kunii (CEO, GHIT Fund), Peter Guenter (Member of the Executive Board and CEO of Healthcare, Merck), and Danny Bar-Zohar (Global Head of R&D, Healthcare at Merck). The dialogue emphasized the need for an innovative access path in the NTDs space; it also underlined the important role of partnerships in the common goal to address this challenge toward disease elimination in line with the 2022 World Health Organization (WHO) Guidelines for Schistosomiasis and the overall 2021-2030 WHO Roadmap for NTDs.
The Pediatric Praziquantel Consortium clearly represents a key opportunity for defining the sustainable access models needed, not only for new treatments but also for sensitive diagnostics for schistosomiasis and other NTDs.