In this regular feature on Breakthroughs, we highlight some of the most interesting reads in global health research from the past week. The Senate Appropriations Labor and Health and Human Services (LHHS) Subcommittee released its fiscal year 2015 appropriations legislation, after a lengthy internal debate on domestic health concerns. The legislation is—for the most part—good news for funding levels and policy issues for several key global health research programs at the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Office of Global Affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services. Since its discovery nearly 40 years ago, we have learned a lot about Ebola. Yet there are still no effective treatments or vaccines to protect people against this deadly disease. According to an article in Vox, this is not because of “a lack of human ingenuity or scientific capacity,” but rather due to a global innovation system that does not prioritize the health research needs of world’s poorest populations. Drs. S. Patrick Kachur, MD, MPH, FACPM—chief of the Malaria Branch in the Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria at CDC’s Center for Global Health—and Larry Slutsker, MD, MPH—director of the Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria at CDC’s Center for Global Health— write in Breakthroughs about the emerging global security threat of anti-malaria drug resistance and CDC’s efforts to prevent, detect, and respond to this growing threat. They write: “…to sustain momentum and move toward elimination of malaria, new tools and technologies will be required.” Despite progress made to prevent maternal and child deaths by the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), still too many mothers and children are compromised or killed by preventable diseases. PATH President and CEO Steve Davis writes for Devex about the need to take advantage of the progress made thus far by the MDGs and accelerate innovation to meet the health needs of millions of people in low- and middle-income countries. It’s World Breastfeeding Week (August 1-7) and as breastfeeding has served as the primary method for a mother to feed her infant since the dawn of humanity, we wonder if this could be a way for a mother to administer life-saving medicines to her baby? According to a group of researchers in the United States and United Kingdom, the answer is yes. Two recent promising developments in the fight against malaria were announced last week. Malaria is one of the leading killers of women and children in the world, and in sub-Saharan Africa particularly—where 90 percent of the more than 620,000 annual malaria deaths occur—new tools to fight the disease are desperately needed.

In this regular feature on Breakthroughs, we highlight some of the most interesting reads in global health research from the past week. In a bit of good news, the fiscal year (FY) 2015 defense appropriations bill—which was approved by the Appropriations Committee last Thursday—includes a $7 million increase for peer-reviewed medical research—from $200 million in FY 2014 to $207 million this year—despite a reduction in overall Department of Defense (DoD) funding from FY 2014 levels. In addition, in the accompanying report, the Appropriations Committee included very strong language recognizing DoD’s substantial contributions to global health research and development (R&D) and the need to support sustained US investments in this area. FHI 360 sat down with International Partnership for Microbicides CEO Zeda Rosenberg to discuss last week’s 20th International AIDS Conference. In this short video, Rosenberg highlights the need to focus on key populations—such as young women in sub-Saharan Africa—and the importance of women-initiated products like microbicides as a HIV prevention tool. Nearly 40 years after the discovery of the Ebola virus, no licensed treatments or prevention options are currently available. With the largest outbreak ever of the virus currently underway in West Africa, some are arguing that scientists should begin to develop new drugs and vaccines to combat this deadly disease. According to CNN, it’s likely too late for a vaccine to have enough of a preventative impact now, but using this time to test experimental vaccines—such as one developed by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health—could help when Ebola emerges again in the future. Last week, the United Nation (UN) General Assembly’s Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals released its proposal for a set of goals to succeed the UN Millennium Development Goals which come to an end in 2015. These proposed goals—referred to as the Sustainable Development Goals—will define the post-2015 development agenda. Of the 17 proposed goals put forward by the group, two contain targets related to R&D of new health technologies. Chagas disease—a neglected tropical disease (NTD) transmitted from the kissing bug and affecting millions of people in Latin America—is now on the rise in northern Virginia. Some doctors in the United States are not familiar with the disease and therefore do not test their patients regularly, which poses a risk to the general population in the United States. Many of the 8 million people with Chagas disease around the world never show signs of the disease, but about a third develop heart disease or megacolon and—when untreated—appear to die from sudden heart attacks. Chagas disease is just one example of NTDs affecting more and more people in the United States.

In this regular feature on Breakthroughs, we highlight some of the most interesting reads in global health research from the past week. During the past year, leaders from the US Global Leadership Coalition (USGLC)—an advocacy organization promoting diplomacy and development—have traveled across America seeking out innovators and innovations that best demonstrate how strategic US investments in global development can enhance America’s foreign policy and security interests—an approach USGLC calls “smart power” diplomacy. USGLC’s report—Innovations in Smart Power—featured PATH’s Vaccine Vial Monitor and the Public Health Institute’s Global Health Fellows Program II. Dr. Francis Collins—director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)—announced on the NIH Director’s blog that NIH will, through its various institutes and centers, begin piloting the idea of awarding longer grants that offer more sustained support for investigators in the hopes it will allow them greater freedom to innovate. Currently, most NIH-funded grants are “project-based”—meaning applicants have very clear research aims for what they will accomplish in a defined period of time, typically between 3-5 years. Policy Cures released a report—titled Tuberculosis: The Last Mile—which explains why current treatments to tuberculosis (TB) control aren’t working; provides a snapshot of the major funders in TB research and development (R&D); and outlines what new products are in the TB pipeline, and how these products could change the future for patients with TB. Last month, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded exploratory grants—as part of its Grand Challenges in Global Health program—to three projects aimed on improving the design of the female condom to make it easier to use and more pleasurable. Currently, female condoms represent only a small part of the overall commercial market and are not as widely used as a prevention tool by the global health community. “Female condoms give women a choice to say: ‘Okay, if you don’t want to wear one, I will,’” said Debby Herbenick, one of the grant recipients. GHTC members AVAC and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, as part of the HIV Vaccines & Microbicides Resource Tracking Working Group, released a new report tracking funding for HIV prevention R&D in 2013. The report found funding was down by US$ 50 million—or four percent—when compared to 2012. The 2013 decrease can be attributed largely to diminished US investment in all areas of HIV prevention research, as well as significantly reduced investment in some European countries.

In this regular feature on Breakthroughs, we highlight some of the most interesting reads in global health research from the past week. Last week, Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevoelkerung (DSW) attended the seventh European & Developing Countries Clinical Trial Partnership (EDCTP) Forum in Berlin, Germany. Anne Hradský—advocacy coordinator at DSW—writes about the value of EDCTP, the progress it has achieved, and news and insights that came out of this year’s forum. The Lancet has published results for the first-ever large-scale Phase III clinical trial for a vaccine against dengue fever. The results show that the three-dose vaccine could reduce cases of dengue fever by 56.5 percent and dengue hemorrhagic fever—a more severe form of dengue—by up to 88.5 percent. The vaccine is being developed by pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur. A new form of easy-to-use injectable contraceptive Depo-Provera—called Sayana® Press—was introduced in Burkina Faso last week as part of a four-country rollout this year. The new form uses PATH-developed Uniject™—an autodisable injection system involving a plastic bubble with a needle attached and filled with one dose of the contraceptive. The device will be introduced next in Uganda, Senegal, and Niger. The Global Post has published the first article in a special report examining how US-backed public-private partnerships (PPPs) are making an impact on global health and whether there is evidence justifying increased US investment in PPPs, especially by the US Agency for International Development. Leaders of the biopharmaceutical research community called on Congress to improve the clinical research process to accelerate the discovery and development of new medical therapies. The 21st Century Cures Initiative—part of the House Energy & Commerce Committee—asked experts to present “strategies for reducing regulatory oversight, speeding up clinical research processes, and utilizing technology to better understand the potential benefits and risks of promising new treatments.”

In this regular feature on Breakthroughs, we highlight some of the most interesting reads in global health research from the past week. Last week the House Appropriations Committee easily approved the State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee’s (SFOPS) appropriations bill. Both chambers have also released their accompanying reports which provide policy language that gives further clarity on the policymakers’ thinking and intent. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released a guidance to assist sponsors in drug development for the treatment and prevention of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) for low- and middle-income countries. The guidance is intended to represented the FDA’s current thinking regarding drug development for NTDs, including clinical trial designs and internal review standards to support approval of drugs. UK Prime Minister David Cameron has called for a global action plan to effectively treat drug-resistant superbugs. Prime Minister Cameron appointed ex-Goldman Sachs Chief Economist Jim O’Neill to lead the analysis on the issue and identify why few new antibiotics are being developed. The O’Neill Commission will also develop a plan for “encouraging and accelerating antibiotic development,” as well as explore incentive mechanisms for drug makers to produce antibiotics even if they are rarely used. Global Health Council (GHC) Executive Director Christine Sow recently wrote about the top ten trends shaping today’s global health outlook. Sow—who was made executive director of the GHC last November—went on a “listening tour” over the last three months to get a better sense of the global health community’s priorities and needs. The All-Party Parliamentary Group on global tuberculosis (TB) in the United Kingdom has released a new report on research and development for global health. The report seeks to explain why diseases that kill so many are neglected in research efforts, and provides a wide range of views and ideas on how to solve the problem.

In this regular feature on Breakthroughs, we highlight some of the most interesting reads in global health research from the past week. Last week, US policymakers and global health advocates came together to talk about progress made on preventing maternal and child deaths. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) hosted a high-level forum called Acting on the Call: Ending Preventable Child and Maternal Deaths to both celebrate progress and assess the challenges that remain. The National Institutes of Health has awarded Boston Medical Center $861,000 to train Ugandans basic research for tuberculosis and emerging diseases. Boston Medical Center is one of five institutions to receive similar funding to enhance infectious disease research in low- and middle-income countries. Sabin Vaccine Institute’s Peter Hotez writes in the Huffington Post about the latest developments in hookworm vaccine development and the efforts of HOOKVAC—a global consortium uniting academic, medical, and research partners to find a vaccine to prevent neglected tropical disease hookworm, which currently more than 400 million people suffer from. ASPIRE—one of two late-stage clinical trials for a microbicide to protect women from HIV—has completed enrollment of trial participants, with 2,629 women from 15 trial sites in Malawi, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. Now that enrollment is complete, we could potentially find out results from this pivotal trial by late 2015, early 2016. GHTC member Jhpiego has been awarded the US government’s largest project to end preventable maternal and child deaths. The Maternal and Child Survival Program, a 5-year, $500 million agreement supported by the USAID, will accelerate the rapid expansion of innovative, high-impact health approaches in 24 priority countries in order to save the lives of every woman and child in need. At an event last week launching the Pediatric HIV Treatment Initiative, panelists discussed the need for “the right medicines for pediatric HIV”—including the need for simplified treatments, and developing, producing, and distributing these medicines to children in low- and middle-income countries.