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Philippines is considered as one of the finest in medical education especially as cost of pursuing Medical education is much lower than other countries such as USA, Australia, China, etc.: Ken Research

GURUGRAM, India, Oct. 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Popularity of Philippines Medical Education Market: Philippines is country with a population of 109.5 Mn and faces a huge shortage of Primary Healthcare workers and medical doctors to its population which is 25/10,000.Hence, in past few years many initiatives are taken by the Philippines government to increase the inclination of the students towards medical education. Most public and private medical colleges offer theoretical as well as training based education system. All medical aspirants need to undergo Examination to pursue Bachelor in Medical Science and become a Physician. It takes roughly 10-13 years to become a specialized doctor in Philippines.

Enablers of Medical Education in Philippines: Philippines are considered as one of the finest places for medical education in the world especially for International Students. It provides with range of Public and Private Colleges which vary in the course structure and fee for both domestic and international students. Public colleges have relatively less fee than the private institution. Philippines provide a very welcoming environment to its International students with no language barrier and cheap cost of living.

Specialized Courses in Philippines: There are many specialized courses available in the Philippines Education System such as Pediatrician, Surgery, Internal medicine, Ophthalmology, Anesthesiology and more. Specialization in Philippines is regarded as residency program as well the fellowship program (Training Programs) for collectively 5 Years. There is a dedicated board for each specialization that conducts an exam which is mandatory for every doctor to qualify to become a specialist.

The report titled “Landscape of Philippines Medical Education Market- Outcome Based Curriculum with Clear Explicit Articulations that Medical Graduates should Demonstrate” by Ken Research suggested that the Colleges have faced a slight downfall in terms of No. of Intake, Enrollment and Graduates amid COVID-19. On an average, it takes 13 years to become a specialist in Philippines including both theatrical and clinical training. Major merits of pursuing medicine in Philippines Universities are factors such as no language barrier, cheap cost of living, free style education and high opportunities.

Key Segments Covered:-

Market Segmentation basis Type of Institution (Number of Colleges)

Private College
Public College
Market Segmentation basis Region (Number of Colleges)

Central Region
Southern Region
Northern Region
Market Segmentation basis Prominent Locations (Number of Colleges)

Metro Manila
South Luzon
Mindanao
North and Central Luzon
Visayas
Physician

Admission Process
Intake Status
Selection Process
Total No. of Graduates
Total Number of Intake
Internal Medicine

Admission Process
Intake Status
Selection Process
Total No. of Graduates
Total Number of Intake
Ophthalmology

Admission Process
Intake Status
Selection Process
Total No. of Graduates
Total Number of Intake
Key Target Audience:-

Public Medical Colleges
Private Medical Colleges
Aspiring students of Bachelor in Medical Education
Aspiring students of Master in Medical Education especially Internal Medicine and Ophthalmology
Time Period Captured in the Report:-

Base Year: 2020
Study Period: 2016–2020
Historical Period: 2016-2020
Colleges Covered:-

Landscape on Philippines Top 10 Medical Education institutions include colleges,

Our Lady of Fatima University
University of Santo Tomas
Far Eastern University
University of the East
MHAM College of Medicine
De La Salle Medical and Health sciences Institute
Southwestern University
Davao Medical School Foundation Inc.
Saint Louis University
Ateneo De Manila University
Key Topics Covered in the Report

Philippines Medical Education Introduction
Detailed Landscape of Private and Public Colleges
Market Ecosystem
Market Segmentation basis Institution and Regions
Admission Process for both Bachelor and Master Course
Detailed Analysis on Physician Courses (Market Size on the basis of Intake Enrollment and Graduates)
Detailed Analysis on Internal Medicine Market Size on the basis of Intake Enrollment and Graduates)
Detailed Analysis on Ophthalmology Market Size on the basis of Intake Enrollment and Graduates)
Major Players in Philippines Medical Education Market
Philippines Medical Education Market
Philippines Ophthalmology Education Market
Philippines Internal Medicine Education Market
Philippines Physician Education Market
Philippines Education Market
Ophthalmologists in Philippines
Internist in Philippines
Physicians in Philippines
MBBS in Philippines
MD in Philippines
Medical Higher Education in Philippines
Medical Graduates in Philippines
Philippines Education Board
Growth of Ophthalmology Education Market in Philippines
Growth of Internal Medicine Education Market in Philippines
Growth of Physician Education Market in Philippines
Philippines Ophthalmology Education College Course Fee
Philippines MBBS Education College Course Fee
Philippines Physician Education College Course Fee
Philippines Internal Medicine Education College Course Fee
Major Colleges for Internal Medicine in Philippines
For More Information on the research report, refer to below link:-

Philippines Medical Education Market

Related Reports:-

Landscape of Vietnam Medical Education Market- Outcome Based Curriculum Began with Clear Explicit Articulations that Medical Graduates should Demonstrate Acceptable Professional Standards

Vietnam Medical Education Sector has been facing many macro and micro challenges. Each challenge has a direct or indirect effect on the Quality of Education and Quantity of Medical Professional prevailing in the Industry. Some of the major challenges faced by the Industry are lack of standard entrance exam, Statutory and Regulatory Body like Medical Council, Lack of standardized entry channels for Residency programmes, Diverse syllabi and heavy reliance on theoretical foundations. Major Enabler in the Vietnam Medical Education Market is mostly the capacity to accommodate medical students and imbalance in the medical ecosystem with increase in support staff like optometrist and technicians.

Landscape of Thailand Medical Education Market-Increasing Number of Top Rated Universities coupled with Undertaking Cutting Edge Research Driving the Industry

Medical Education in Thailand has seen a long journey with various turns with intense progress. The journey has given the system its fair share of challenges to deal with issues including keeping pace with rapidly changing knowledge and installing same coping abilities in the students, maintaining quality of training of students with their increasing demand, mental health issues arising for medical students under heavy pressure, funds and scholarships to arrange the education, to retain good quality staff and lack of private investment in medical education.

Various factors that drive the growth of Medical Education Sytem in Thailand are expensive public infrastructure and universal coverage, postgraduate program is in alignment with international standards, the brain drain is at lower level in comparison to its neighbouring countries because majority of education is in Thai, changes in the need of society, changes in the nature of students, evolution in learning and teaching processes, rapid changes in technologies supporting medical practices and education, enormous explosion in medical knowledge and changes in the health system.

Landscape of Indonesia Medical Education Market- Consistent Changes In The Course Curriculum Helping Indonesian Medical Education System to Improve Skills of Medical Graduates

Indonesia Medical Education Sector has been facing many macro and micro-challenges. Each challenge has a direct or indirect effect on the Quality of Education and Quantity of Medical professionals prevailing in the Industry. Some of the common challenges faced by the Industry are high fees of medical programs, absence of standardized admission process, and difficulty to crack exams. The Industry also faces a major challenge in the form of learning outcomes, there is a disparity between the skills of graduates and the needs of employers. Hence Medical Education needs a curriculum that improves the skills of the graduates.

Major Enabler in the Indonesia Medical Education Market is mostly the great environment to accommodate students especially International Aspirants provided by the country owing to factors such as a large number of medical schools, good infrastructure, high employment opportunities, and excellent scholarship schemes.

Landscape of Malaysia Medical Education Market-Growth in Medical Graduates, Pushing Candidates to Seek Specialization Contributing to Medical Workforce

Malaysia Medical Education Sector has been facing many macro and micro challenges. Each challenge has a direct or indirect effect on the Quality of Education and Quantity of Medical Professional prevailing in the Industry. Some challenges are opening up over the time however some challenges have become stagnant. Enablers in the Malaysia Medical Education Market are mostly apprehending for the international students.

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/661352/Ken_Research_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Ken Research

WHO, UN Set Out Steps To Meet World COVID Vaccination Targets

GENEVA, 7 October 2021 – The World Health Organization has today launched the Strategy to Achieve Global Covid-19 Vaccination by mid-2022 (the Strategy) to help bring an end to what has become a two-track pandemic: people in poorer countries continue to be at risk while those in richer countries with high vaccination rates enjoy much greater protection.

WHO had set a target to vaccinate 10% of every country, economy and territory by the end of September but by that date 56 countries had not been able to do so, the vast majority of these are countries in Africa and the Middle East.

The new strategy outlines a plan for achieving WHO’s targets to vaccinate 40% of the population of every country by the end of this year and 70% by mid-2022.

“Science has played its part by delivering powerful, life-saving tools faster than for any outbreak in history,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “But the concentration of those tools in the hands of a few countries and companies has led to a global catastrophe, with the rich protected while the poor remain exposed to a deadly virus. We can still achieve the targets for this year and next, but it will take a level of political commitment, action and cooperation, beyond what we have seen to date.”

“This is a costed, coordinated and credible path out of the COVID-19 pandemic for everyone, everywhere,” said United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. “Without a coordinated, equitable approach, a reduction of cases in any one country will not be sustained over time. For everyone’s sake, we must urgently bring all countries to a high level of vaccination coverage.”

To achieve the global vaccination targets, there should be a three-step approach to vaccination, with all older adults, health workers, and high-risk groups of all ages, in every country vaccinated first, followed by the full adult age group in every country and lastly extended vaccination of adolescents.

Vaccinating 70% of the global population requires at least 11 billion vaccine doses. By the end of September, just over 6 billion doses had already been administered worldwide. With global vaccine production now at nearly 1.5 billion doses per month, there is sufficient vaccine from a supply perspective to achieve the global vaccination targets provided that there is equitable distribution of those doses.

Substantial financing has already been invested to procure most of the required vaccine doses for low- and lower-middle-income countries through COVAX, the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT) and bilateral contracts. There needs to be additional investment to secure the remaining vaccine doses for these countries as well as investment to support in-country delivery.

The Strategy outlines the priority actions needed from the different actors to achieve the targets.

All Countries must:

Establish updated national COVID-19 vaccine targets and plans defining dose requirements to guide manufacturing investment and vaccine redistribution, and financial and programmatic resource needs to guide internal planning and external support;
Monitor vaccine demand and uptake carefully to rapidly adapt services and ensure continuity of vaccine supplies;
Commit to equitable distribution of vaccines in line with the WHO three-step approach;
Revise national vaccination strategies, policies and prioritization as needed to harness emerging evidence to maximize the impact of existing, modified and new vaccines.
Countries with high vaccine coverage must:

Swap vaccine delivery schedules, with COVAX and AVAT to enhance coverage in countries in need;
Fulfil and accelerate vaccine dose-sharing and donation commitments to COVAX in the near term, for those with existing pledges;
Establish new dose-sharing commitments to facilitate progress toward the 70% coverage target in every country.
Vaccine-producing countries must:

Allow the free cross-border flow of finished vaccines and raw materials;
Enable diversified vaccine production, both geographically and technologically, including through non-exclusive, and transparent licensing and sharing of know-how to allow transfer of technology and scale-up of manufacturing.
COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers must:

Prioritize and fulfil COVAX and AVAT contracts as a matter of urgency;
Provide full transparency on the overall monthly production of COVID-19 vaccines and clear monthly schedules for supplies to COVAX, AVAT and low and low-middle income countries, to enable proper global and national-level planning and optimal use of scarce supplies;
Actively engage and work with countries that have high coverage and that have contracted high volumes of vaccines to allow the prioritization of COVAX and AVAT contracts, including through delivery schedule swaps, and facilitate rapid and early dose-sharing;
Commit to share know-how more rapidly, facilitate technology transfer and provide transparent non-exclusive voluntary licenses, to ensure that future vaccine supply is reliable, affordable, available, and deployed to every country in volumes and timing that achieves equitable access.
Civil Society, community organizations, and the private sector must:

Advocate locally, nationally and internationally for equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments, calling for and monitoring in particular the specific actions required of manufacturers, governments and multilateral actors;
Mobilize and empower communities, including through social media and community networks, to generate strong vaccine demand and address misinformation and misperceptions that contribute to vaccine hesitancy;
Provide support to the in-country delivery of vaccination programmes and services.
Global and regional multilateral development banks and institutions must:

Enable countries to more rapidly access the capital and external support needed for in-country vaccine delivery, prioritizing low-income settings and especially targeting support to the technical, logistics and human resources required;
Engage fully with COVAX/ACT-Accelerator and AVAT, with integrated operations and real-time sharing of information to truly support equitable access;
Support international procurement and allocation mechanisms to enable all countries to equitably, efficiently and rapidly achieve the COVID-19 vaccine targets;
Support vaccine distribution plans and a campaign to convey the life-saving importance of approved COVID-19 vaccinations.
For their part, WHO, Gavi, UNICEF and CEPI must work in close collaboration with World Bank, World Trade Organization, International Monetary Fund, Africa CDC, AVAT, and other key partners to monitor progress, identify changes needed to resolve bottlenecks, coordinate information and prioritize actions; continue to co-lead and manage the COVAX Pillar of ACT-Accelerator; support the equitable allocation of available vaccines, particularly to low-, lower-middle-income and lagging countries; directly support countries to develop and sustain rapid, effective, high-quality COVID-19 vaccine delivery programmes that can achieve the global targets; address key research, policy, safety and regulatory issues that will optimize vaccine impact including effective supply, dosing and vaccine schedules, mixing and matching of products, protection against variants, and other issues; and monitor and report monthly on progress towards the global COVID-19 vaccination goals.

Note to Editors:

The Strategy to Achieve Global Covid-19 Vaccination by mid-2022 can be read in its entirety here.

Qatar Supports Shipment of WHO Life-saving Medical Supplies to Kabul

An aircraft carrying around 23 metric tonnes of life-saving medicines and supplies from WHO landed in Kabul today at 13:30 local time.

The shipment, which is among the first humanitarian aid to arrive at Kabul airport since operations were disrupted on 15 August, was flown by a Qatar Airways flight donated by the Government of the State of Qatar.

“As health needs increase in Afghanistan, we must move quickly to address the shortages in medical supplies to keep life-saving health services running. I thank the Government of the State of Qatar for its generous and timely support, which has allowed WHO to replenish depleted stocks and meet the needs of the most vulnerable Afghans,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization.

A second flight donated by the State of Qatar is expected to arrive later this week, carrying more WHO medical supplies.

Together, the 2 shipments which contain essential medicines such as insulin, medical consumables, trauma and surgery kits, and COVID-19 testing kits, will address the urgent health needs of 1.45 million people and provide for 5400 major and minor surgeries. They will be distributed to 280 health facilities and 31 public COVID-19 laboratories across Afghanistan.

The supplies have been shipped from WHO suppliers’ facilities in Europe to Qatar and onward to Kabul, Afghanistan, in collaboration with the operations and logistic teams of Qatar Airways and the Government of the State of Qatar.

WHO is exploring options to expedite further shipments of health supplies to Afghanistan.

The establishment of a reliable humanitarian airbridge continues to be a pressing need to ensure timely movement of humanitarian aid and personnel to respond to the evolving situation.

WHO is committed to staying and delivering. The 2 flights from Qatar will mean that WHO will have airlifted 131 metric tonnes of supplies since 30 August, which are enough to cover the urgent health needs of 2.43 million people and provide for around 19 000 major and minor surgeries.

Emergency Physicians: Spotting the Warning Signs of Suicide Can Save a Life

WASHINGTON, Sept. 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, and the pandemic continues to impact everyone’s mental health in different ways. Anyone can learn the warning signs of suicide risk and do their part to support those who may need help, according to the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP).

“Most people think of the physical dangers of COVID, but this pandemic is contributing significantly to mental health challenges, too. Simple steps, like checking in with someone you care about, can mean the world, and spotting the warning signs of a mental health emergency can save a life,” said Mark Rosenberg, DO, MBA, FACEP, president of ACEP.

Everyone experiences stress at some point, but it is time to contact a professional when risk factors lead to changes in behavior or impede daily activities. If there is an immediate health emergency or safety risk, call 911 or visit the closest emergency department. The warning signs of a mental health emergency can include:

Hopelessness
Rage, uncontrolled anger, seeking revenge
Acting reckless or engaging in risky activities
Increased alcohol or drug use
Withdrawal from friends, family, or society
Anxiety, agitation, trouble sleeping or sleeping all the time
Dramatic mood changes
Prolonged isolation, anxiety or grief can be especially challenging for teens or young adults and emergency physicians are seeing an uptick in mental health emergencies during the pandemic.

Depression and anxiety are on the rise and more children and young adults are going to the emergency department for mental health-related emergencies and suicide attempts, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). While overall suicide rates dropped in the last year, more of these tragedies are occurring in minority communities that are disproportionately impacted by COVID.

“Many communities have great mental health resources for anyone who is struggling with depression or suicidal thoughts, and I encourage them to reach out before it becomes an emergency,” said Dr. Rosenberg. “But no matter what the crisis, emergency physicians are trained and ready to help.”

Resources for anyone struggling with their mental health include the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). The confidential service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Read more about the ways emergency physicians identify and reduce suicide risks on www.emergencyphysicians.org.

The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) is the national medical society representing emergency medicine. Through continuing education, research, public education and advocacy, ACEP advances emergency care on behalf of its 40,000 emergency physician members, and the more than 150 million Americans they treat on an annual basis. For more information, visit www.acep.org and www.emergencyphysicians.org.

SOURCE American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP)

CONTACT: Steve Arnoff | sarnoff@acep.org | Twitter @EmergencyDocs

WHO and UN partners’ compendium of 500 actions aims to reduce diseases from environmental factors and save lives

WHO, UNDP, UNEP and UNICEF have partnered to create a new compendium of 500 actions aimed at reducing death and diseases driven by environmental risk factors, the first such resource to unite this expertise from across the UN system.

Environmental pollution and other environmental risks cause 24 per cent of deaths through, for example, heart disease, stroke, poisonings, traffic accidents, and others. This toll could be substantially reduced – even eliminated – through bold preventive action at national, regional, local and sector-specific levels.

The Compendium of WHO and other UN guidance on health & environment provides easy access to practical actions for practitioners to scale up efforts to create healthy environments that prevent disease. It is designed for policymakers, staff in government ministries, local government, in-country UN personnel and other decision makers.

The repository presents actions and recommendations to address a comprehensive range of environmental risk factors to health, such as air pollution, unsafe water, sanitation, and hygiene, climate and ecosystem change, chemicals, radiation and occupational risks, among others.

Air pollution alone leads to 7 million deaths each year, while climate change is expected to contribute increasingly to a broad range of health impacts, both directly and indirectly through effects on biodiversity.

“Events like record-breaking high temperatures in North America, massive flooding in Europe and China, and devastating wildfire seasons provide increasingly frequent, grim reminders that countries need to step up action to eliminate the health impacts of environmental risk factors,” said Dr Maria Neira, Director, Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health, at WHO. “Implementing the actions in the compendium should be part of a healthy and green recovery from the COVID pandemic and beyond, and is essential to attaining the Sustainable Development Goals. The UN is uniting its health and environment expertise to support countries in this endeavour.”

The compendium, which is accessible via interactive webpages on the WHO website and as a PDF for offline reference, also addresses priority settings for action, such as cities and urban settlements, as well as cross-cutting topics like children’s environmental health.

“Young children are especially vulnerable to environmental risks, which can affect their survival and lifelong health and well-being,” said Aboubacar Kampo, Director of Health Programmes at UNICEF. “Healthy environments are a prerequisite for healthy children. Our assessment indicates that it can prevent a range of life-threatening diseases and quite significantly, up to a quarter of deaths among children under five years of age. Furthermore, healthy environments work as preventative health care and help reduce unnecessary medical costs for families, enabling them to invest in socio-economic progress.”

Two thirds of deaths attributed to environmental risk factors are from non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as heart disease, stroke and cancer, making the actions in the compendium a crucial part of addressing the NCD epidemic.

The compendium can also play an important role in achieving health equity, as low- and middle-income countries bear the greatest environmental burden in all types of diseases and injuries.

“The Compendium can be used to engage in country dialogue on development priorities in line with the 2030 Agenda, and to direct resources accordingly for resilient, healthy, inclusive and sustainable development,” said Dr Mandeep Dhaliwal, Director of the HIV, Health and Development Group at UNDP. “By addressing the factors that cause a large burden of the disease in low- and middle-income countries, the Compendium offers policymakers, the private sector and other stakeholders valuable tools for creating the transformative change needed to secure a healthy future for people and planet.”

“Channelling investments into the actions that address the triple planetary crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, which have profound implications for health, is key. We must transform the way we value nature if we are to safeguard health and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals — a major shift that requires multi-sector, multi-agency efforts. This compendium, by making available key tools and methodologies developed by a broad range of development partners is an important step in this direction and in promoting positive environment and health outcomes,” said Monika MacDevette, Chief, Chemicals and Health Branch, UNEP.

The compendium is a “living” repository, subject to updates and new guidance as they become available from partner organizations. Each action is briefly described and refers to the source for greater detail.

It calls for a scaling up of actions in countries by ministries of health and others at national, regional, local levels, with each of the outlined interventions classified according to principally involved sectors, level of implementation and necessary instruments, such as regulation, taxes and subsidies, infrastructure, education, communication, and others.

Link to the compendium: Compendium of WHO and other UN guidance on health and environment
News release: WHO and UN partners’ compendium of 500 actions aims to reduce diseases from environmental factors and save lives
Watch the short explainer animation: Compendium of WHO and other UN guidance on health and environment – YouTube

WHO Issues First Global Report On AI In Health And Six Guiding Principles For Its Design And Use

Geneva: Artificial Intelligence (AI) holds great promise for improving the delivery of healthcare and medicine worldwide, but only if ethics and human rights are put at the heart of its design, deployment, and use, according to new WHO guidance published today.

The report, Ethics and governance of artificial intelligence for health, is the result of 2 years of consultations held by a panel of international experts appointed by WHO.

“Like all new technology, artificial intelligence holds enormous potential for improving the health of millions of people around the world, but like all technology it can also be misused and cause harm,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “This important new report provides a valuable guide for countries on how to maximize the benefits of AI, while minimizing its risks and avoiding its pitfalls.”

Artificial intelligence can be, and in some wealthy countries is already being used to improve the speed and accuracy of diagnosis and screening for diseases; to assist with clinical care; strengthen health research and drug development, and support diverse public health interventions, such as disease surveillance, outbreak response, and health systems management.

AI could also empower patients to take greater control of their own health care and better understand their evolving needs. It could also enable resource-poor countries and rural communities, where patients often have restricted access to health-care workers or medical professionals, to bridge gaps in access to health services.

However, WHO’s new report cautions against overestimating the benefits of AI for health, especially when this occurs at the expense of core investments and strategies required to achieve universal health coverage.

It also points out that opportunities are linked to challenges and risks, including unethical collection and use of health data; biases encoded in algorithms, and risks of AI to patient safety, cybersecurity, and the environment.

For example, while private and public sector investment in the development and deployment of AI is critical, the unregulated use of AI could subordinate the rights and interests of patients and communities to the powerful commercial interests of technology companies or the interests of governments in surveillance and social control.

The report also emphasizes that systems trained primarily on data collected from individuals in high-income countries may not perform well for individuals in low- and middle-income settings.

AI systems should therefore be carefully designed to reflect the diversity of socio-economic and health-care settings. They should be accompanied by training in digital skills, community engagement and awareness-raising, especially for millions of healthcare workers who will require digital literacy or retraining if their roles and functions are automated, and who must contend with machines that could challenge the decision-making and autonomy of providers and patients.

Ultimately, guided by existing laws and human rights obligations, and new laws and policies that enshrine ethical principles, governments, providers, and designers must work together to address ethics and human rights concerns at every stage of an AI technology’s design, development, and deployment.

Six principles to ensure AI works for the public interest in all countries

To limit the risks and maximize the opportunities intrinsic to the use of AI for health, WHO provides the following principles as the basis for AI regulation and governance:

Protecting human autonomy: In the context of health care, this means that humans should remain in control of health-care systems and medical decisions; privacy and confidentiality should be protected, and patients must give valid informed consent through appropriate legal frameworks for data protection.

Promoting human well-being and safety and the public interest. The designers of AI technologies should satisfy regulatory requirements for safety, accuracy and efficacy for well-defined use cases or indications. Measures of quality control in practice and quality improvement in the use of AI must be available.

Ensuring transparency, explainability and intelligibility. Transparency requires that sufficient information be published or documented before the design or deployment of an AI technology. Such information must be easily accessible and facilitate meaningful public consultation and debate on how the technology is designed and how it should or should not be used.

Fostering responsibility and accountability. Although AI technologies perform specific tasks, it is the responsibility of stakeholders to ensure that they are used under appropriate conditions and by appropriately trained people. Effective mechanisms should be available for questioning and for redress for individuals and groups that are adversely affected by decisions based on algorithms.

Ensuring inclusiveness and equity. Inclusiveness requires that AI for health be designed to encourage the widest possible equitable use and access, irrespective of age, sex, gender, income, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, ability or other characteristics protected under human rights codes.

Promoting AI that is responsive and sustainable. Designers, developers and users should continuously and transparently assess AI applications during actual use to determine whether AI responds adequately and appropriately to expectations and requirements. AI systems should also be designed to minimize their environmental consequences and increase energy efficiency. Governments and companies should address anticipated disruptions in the workplace, including training for health-care workers to adapt to the use of AI systems, and potential job losses due to use of automated systems.

These principles will guide future WHO work to support efforts to ensure that the full potential of AI for healthcare and public health will be used for the benefits of all.

More: https://www.who.int/teams/health-ethics-governance/emerging-technologies/big-data-and-artificial-intelligence

Media contact:

Tarik Jašarević
E-mail: jasarevict@who.int

Moderna and Samsung Biologics Announce Agreement for Fill-Finish Manufacturing of Moderna’s COVID-19 Vaccine

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and INCHEON, South Korea, May 22, 2021 — Moderna (Nasdaq: MRNA), a biotechnology company pioneering messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines, and Samsung Biologics (KRX: 207940.KS), a leading global CDMO providing a fully integrated end-to-end contract development and manufacturing service, today announced a Manufacturing Services and Supply Agreement in which Samsung Biologics will provide large scale, commercial fill-finish manufacturing for mRNA-1273, Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine.

Samsung Biologics’ Drug Product Manufacturing
Samsung Biologics’ Drug Product Manufacturing
Upon execution of the deal, technology transfer will commence immediately at Samsung Biologics’ facilities in Incheon, South Korea, utilizing a state-of-the-art production line equipped for aseptic fill-finish, labeling, and packaging services to support the production of hundreds of millions of doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine intended for the supply of markets outside of the U.S. starting in the third quarter of 2021.

“This vaccine is paramount to people around the world in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, and we truly appreciate our client Moderna for entrusting and choosing to partner with Samsung Biologics for the fill and finish of this important vaccine,” said John Rim, CEO of Samsung Biologics. “Due to the high level of urgency in supplying the vaccine to the global population, we have set immediate action plans and schedule to make mRNA-1273 available for commercial distribution in the early second half of 2021.”

“We are pleased to partner with Samsung Biologics for this fill and finish manufacturing, which will help us continue to scale up our manufacturing capacity outside of the U.S.,” said Juan Andres, Moderna’s Chief Technical Operations and Quality Officer. “We and our manufacturing partners remain committed to defeating the COVID-19 pandemic.”

About Moderna
In 10 years since its inception, Moderna has transformed from a science research-stage company advancing programs in the field of messenger RNA (mRNA), to an enterprise with a diverse clinical portfolio of vaccines and therapeutics across six modalities, a broad intellectual property portfolio in areas including mRNA and lipid nanoparticle formulation, and an integrated manufacturing plant that allows for both clinical and commercial production at scale and at unprecedented speed. Moderna maintains alliances with a broad range of domestic and overseas government and commercial collaborators, which has allowed for the pursuit of both groundbreaking science and rapid scaling of manufacturing. Most recently, Moderna’s capabilities have come together to allow the authorized use of one of the earliest and most effective vaccines against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Moderna’s mRNA platform builds on continuous advances in basic and applied mRNA science, delivery technology and manufacturing, and has allowed the development of therapeutics and vaccines for infectious diseases, immuno-oncology, rare diseases, cardiovascular diseases and auto-immune diseases. Today, 24 development programs are underway across these therapeutic areas, with 14 programs having entered the clinic. Moderna has been named a top biopharmaceutical employer by Science for the past six years. To learn more, visit www.modernatx.com.

About Samsung Biologics Co., Ltd.
Samsung Biologics (KRX: 207940.KS) is a fully integrated CDMO offering state-of-the-art contract development, manufacturing, and laboratory testing services. With proven regulatory approvals, the largest capacity, and the fastest throughput, Samsung Biologics is an award-winning partner of choice and is uniquely able to support the development and manufacturing of biologics products at every stage of the process while meeting the evolving needs of biopharmaceutical companies worldwide. For more information, visit www.samsungbiologics.com.

CGTN：China Makes New Pledges To Help Developing Countries Defeat COVID-19

BEIJING, May 21, 2021 — China on Friday announced several new measures to help developing countries tackle the COVID-19 pandemic and its sweeping impacts, pledging to contribute $3 billion in the next three years and provide more vaccines.

Addressing the Global Health Summit via video link, Chinese President Xi Jinping urged the world’s leading economies to remedy deficiencies, close loopholes and strengthen weak links in fighting “the most serious pandemic in a century.”

CGTN：China makes new pledges to help developing countries defeat COVID-19
CGTN：China makes new pledges to help developing countries defeat COVID-19
The summit was co-hosted by the European Commission and Italy, chair of the Group of 20 (G20) this year.

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide has surpassed 165 million, with more than 3.4 million deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

‘Close the immunization gap’

“A year ago, I proposed that vaccines should be made a global public good,” Xi said. “Today, the problem of uneven vaccination has become more acute.”

More than 1.1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered globally, but over 80 percent of those were administered in high and upper-middle income countries, with just 0.3 percent of inoculations taking place in low-income countries, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), said earlier this month.

China has supplied 300 million doses of vaccines to the world; it has provided free vaccines to more than 80 developing countries in urgent need and exported vaccines to 43 countries, Xi noted, adding that China will provide more vaccines to the best of its ability.

China supports its vaccine companies in transferring technologies to other developing countries and carrying out joint production with them, he said.

Reaffirming China’s support for waiving intellectual property rights on COVID-19 vaccines, he said the country “supports the World Trade Organization and other international institutions in making an early decision on this matter.”

He raised a proposal for setting up an international forum on vaccine cooperation to promote fair and equitable distribution of vaccines around the world.

“We must uphold fairness and equity as we strive to close the immunization gap,” Xi stressed. “It is imperative for us to reject vaccine nationalism and find solutions to issues concerning the production capacity and distribution of vaccines, in order to make vaccines more accessible and affordable in developing countries.”

More financial support

China has already provided $2 billion to help with developing countries’ responses to COVID-19; it has sent medical supplies to more than 150 countries and 13 international organizations, providing more than 280 billion masks, 3.4 billion protective suits and four billion testing kits to the world, according to Xi.

“China will provide an additional $3 billion in international aid over the next three years to support COVID-19 response and economic and social recovery in other developing countries,” he announced.

Xi, the leader of the world’s largest developing country, mentioned “developing countries” 11 times in a speech that lasted less than seven minutes, calling on G20 members to do more to help them and address their concerns.

“China is fully implementing the G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative for Poorest Countries and has so far put off debt repayment exceeding $1.3 billion, the highest deferral amount among G20 members,” he said.

It is essential that G20 members continue to support developing countries by such means as debt suspension and development aid, said the Chinese president.

Xi went further to call for improvement in the global governance system. G20 countries should strengthen and leverage the role of the United Nations and the WHO and improve the global disease prevention and control system, the Chinese president said.

“It is important that we uphold the spirit of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, fully heed the views of developing countries, and better reflect their legitimate concerns,” he added.

Xi repeated his call for solidarity and cooperation in fighting COVID-19 and building a global community of health for all.

“The pandemic is yet another reminder that we, humanity, rise and fall together with a shared future,” he said. “We must champion the vision of building a global community of health for all, tide over this trying time through solidarity and cooperation, and firmly reject any attempt to politicize, label or stigmatize the virus.”

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-05-21/China-makes-new-pledges-to-help-developing-countries-defeat-COVID-19-10rWrYN7HGg/index.html

SOURCE CGTN

CONTACT: Media Contact: Jiang Simin, +86-188-2655-3286, cgtn@cgtn.com

WHO, Germany Launch New Global Hub For Pandemic And Epidemic Intelligence

Geneva/Berlin, 5 May 2021 — The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Federal Republic of Germany will establish a new global hub for pandemic and epidemic intelligence, data, surveillance and analytics innovation. The Hub, based in Berlin and working with partners around the world, will lead innovations in data analytics across the largest network of global data to predict, prevent, detect prepare for and respond to pandemic and epidemic risks worldwide.

H.E. German Federal Chancellor Dr Angela Merkel said: “The current Covid-19 pandemic has taught us that we can only fight pandemics and epidemics together. The new WHO Hub will be a global platform for pandemic prevention, bringing together various governmental, academic and private sector institutions. I am delighted that WHO chose Berlin as its location and invite partners from all around the world to contribute to the WHO hub.”

The WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence is part of WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme and will be a new collaboration of countries and partners worldwide, driving innovations to increase availability and linkage of diverse data; develop tools and predictive models for risk analysis; and to monitor disease control measures, community acceptance and infodemics. Critically, the WHO Hub will support the work of public health experts and policy-makers in all countries with insights so they can take rapid decisions to prevent and respond to future public health emergencies.

“We need to identify pandemic and epidemic risks as quickly as possible, wherever they occur in the world. For that aim, we need to strengthen the global early warning surveillance system with improved collection of health-related data and inter-disciplinary risk analysis,” said Jens Spahn, German Minister of Health. “Germany has consistently been committed to support WHO’s work in preparing for and responding to health emergencies, and the WHO Hub is a concrete initiative that will make the world safer.”

Working with partners globally, the WHO Hub will drive a scale-up in innovation for existing forecasting and early warning capacities in WHO and Member States. At the same time, the WHO Hub will accelerate global collaborations across public and private sector organizations, academia, and international partner networks. It will help them to collaborate and co-create the necessary tools for managing and analyzing data for early warning surveillance. It will also promote greater access to data and information.

“One of the lessons of COVID-19 is that world needs a significant leap forward in data analysis to help leaders make informed public health decisions,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “This requires harnessing the potential of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, combining diverse data sources, and collaborating across multiple disciplines. Better data and better analytics will lead to better decisions.”

CVS Health Expands No-Cost Health Screening Program, Advancing Company’s Commitment to Address Health Equity and Disparities

WOONSOCKET, R.I., April 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — CVS Health (NYSE: CVS) announced today it has launched an expansion of Project Health, the company’s no-cost, community-based screening program, which helps people without regular access to health care understand their risk for chronic conditions and connect to free or low-cost providers and services to support their unique health care needs.

As the company begins its 16th year of Project Health events, it will focus on an expansion into 14 new metro markets and the addition of four new mobile units to help bring these health screenings closer to areas of significant need. Between April and December, CVS Health anticipates hosting more than 1,700 Project Health screening events in a total of 32 metro markets across the country. The new metro areas where Project Health will expand include Birmingham, AL; Phoenix, AZ; Jacksonville, Orlando and Tallahassee, FL; Baton Rouge and New Orleans, LA; Jackson, MS; Charlotte, NC; Cleveland, OH; Charleston and Columbia, SC; and Knoxville and Memphis, TN.

“At the heart of our purpose of helping people on their path to better health is our commitment to breaking down the barriers for people to access quality and affordable health care, and we started Project Health to help address these barriers in at-risk communities,” said Eileen Howard Boone, SVP, Corporate Social Responsibility and Philanthropy, CVS Health. “Each year as we choose Project Health locations, we select sites where we can make the most impact at the local level.”

Last year, CVS Health made a nearly $600 million commitment to invest in initiatives that address inequality faced by Black people and other disenfranchised communities. This expansion of Project Health is the latest in the company’s efforts to address social determinants of health that exist alongside racial and economic inequities.

“Our efforts to address social justice and equity are focused in areas where we can have the greatest impact as a leader in health,” said Kyu Rhee, SVP and Chief Medical Officer, CVS Health. “Over the last 15 years, Project Health has been extremely successful in connecting people to the health information and follow-up care they need to address the chronic conditions in many health disparity populations. As we expand the program this year, we will be able to dramatically increase our impact, ability to reduce health disparities and promote health equity.”

Through Project Health, the company hosts events at CVS Pharmacy locations offering free biometric screenings including blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose level and body mass index to detect early risks of chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and heart disease before they become life-threatening. Following these screenings, participants have the opportunity to meet with a nurse practitioner who can provide referrals for treatment and advice on follow-up care, which is particularly important given that some people have delayed or put off primary care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Project Health events are prioritizing the safety of employees, customers and patients by taking the necessary steps to follow CDC COVID-19 guidelines.

Since its inception in 2006, Project Health has delivered more than $134 million in free health care services to over one million Americans in diverse communities with large numbers of uninsured or underinsured people.

Patients can visit cvs.com/project-health to learn more about these events and how they can safely prioritize their health by receiving a no-cost screening.

About CVS Health
We are a diversified health services company with more than 300,000 employees united around a common purpose of helping people on their path to better health. In an increasingly connected and digital world, we are meeting people wherever they are and changing health care to meet their needs. Built on a foundation of unmatched community presence, our diversified model makes us an integral part of people’s everyday health. From our innovative new services at HealthHUBTM locations, to transformative programs that help manage chronic conditions, we are making health care more accessible, more affordable and simply better. Learn more about how we’re transforming health at www.cvshealth.com.

Media Contact:
Courtney Tavener
401-712-3698
Courtney.Tavener@CVSHealth.com

SOURCE CVS Health

New WHO Global Compact To Speed Up Action To Tackle Diabetes

The World Health Organization’s new Global Diabetes Compact aims to bring a much-needed boost to efforts to prevent diabetes and bring treatment to all who need it ̶ 100 years after the discovery of insulin.

The Compact is being launched today at the Global Diabetes Summit, which is co-hosted by WHO and the Government of Canada, with the support of the University of Toronto. During the event, the President of Kenya will join the Prime Ministers of Fiji, Norway and Singapore; the WHO Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases and Injuries, Michael R. Bloomberg; and ministers of health from a number of countries as well as diabetes experts and people living with diabetes, to highlight the ways in which they will support this new collaborative effort. Other UN agencies, civil society partners and representatives of the private sector will also attend.

The risk of early death from diabetes is increasing

“The need to take urgent action on diabetes is clearer than ever,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization. “The number of people with diabetes has quadrupled in the last 40 years. It is the only major noncommunicable disease for which the risk of dying early is going up, rather than down. And a high proportion of people who are severely ill in hospital with COVID-19 have diabetes. The Global Diabetes Compact will help to catalyze political commitment for action to increase the accessibility and affordability of life-saving medicines for diabetes and also for its prevention and diagnosis.”

“Canada has a proud history of diabetes research and innovation. From the discovery of insulin in 1921 to one hundred years later, we continue working to support people living with diabetes,” said the Honourable Patty Hajdu, Minister of Health, Canada. “But we cannot take on diabetes alone. We must each share knowledge and foster international collaboration to help people with diabetes live longer, healthier lives — in Canada and around the world.”

Urgent action needed on increasing access to affordable insulin

One of the most urgent areas of work is to increase access to diabetes diagnostic tools and medicines, particularly insulin, in low- and middle-income countries.

The introduction of a pilot programme for WHO prequalification of insulin in 2019 has been an important step. Currently the insulin market is dominated by three companies. Prequalification of insulin produced by more manufacturers could help increase the availability of quality-assured insulin to countries that are currently not meeting demand. In addition, discussions are already underway with manufacturers of insulin and other diabetes medicines and diagnostic tools about avenues that could help meet demand at prices that countries can afford.

Insulin is not the only scarce commodity: many people struggle to obtain and afford blood glucose metres and test strips as well.

In addition, about half of all adults with type 2 diabetes remain undiagnosed and 50% of people with type 2 diabetes don’t get the insulin they need, placing them at avoidable risk of debilitating and irreversible complications such as early death, limb amputations and sight loss.

Innovation will be one of the core components of the Compact, with a focus on developing and evaluating low-cost technologies and digital solutions for diabetes care.

Global targets to be agreed on

The Compact will also focus on catalyzing progress by setting global coverage targets for diabetes care. A “global price tag” will quantify the costs and benefits of meeting these new targets. The Compact will also advocate for fulfilling the commitment made by governments to include diabetes prevention and treatment into primary health care and as part of universal health coverage packages.

“A key aim of the Global Diabetes Compact is to unite key stakeholders from the public and private sectors, and, critically, people who live with diabetes, around a common agenda, to generate new momentum and co-create solutions,” said Dr Bente Mikkelsen, Director of the Department of Noncommunicable Diseases at WHO. “The “all hands on deck” approach to the COVID-19 response is showing us what can be achieved when different sectors work together to find solutions to an urgent public health problem.”

People watching the Summit will hear from people living with diabetes from India, Lebanon, Singapore, the United Republic of Tanzania, the USA and Zimbabwe about the challenges they face in managing their diabetes and how these could be overcome. Part of the Summit has been co-designed with people who live with diabetes and will give them a global platform to explain what they are expecting from the Compact and how they would like to be involved in its further development and implementation.

“It is time to create momentum not just for living with diabetes, but thriving with it,” said Dr Apoorva Gomber, a diabetes advocate living with type 1 diabetes who is taking part in the Summit. “We must grab the opportunity of the Compact with both hands and use it to ensure that we can look back in a few years’ time and say that, finally, our countries are equipped to help people with diabetes live healthy and productive lives.”

Note for journalists:

The Global Diabetes Summit has three segments:

a first segment primarily for governments, donors, non-state actors and people living with diabetes;
a second segment on operationalizing meaningful engagement of people living with diabetes; and
a third segment for people living with diabetes entitled ‘100 Years of Insulin ̶ Celebrating Its Impact on Our Lives’ organized by the University of Toronto

Segment 1

Join the WHO Director-General and world leaders for the launch of the Global Diabetes Compact, a collective effort to prevent diabetes and bring the right care to all who need it.

Moderated by awarding-winning journalist Femi Oke

11:00-13:00 – New York, 17:00-19:00 – Geneva, 20.30-22.30 – New Delhi

Segment 2

Organized in collaboration with a consultative group of people living with diabetes, this segment will discuss how people with lived experience of diabetes will meaningfully engage in all phases of the Global Diabetes Compact.

13:00-15:00 – New York, 19:00-21:00 – Geneva time, 22:30-00:30 – New Delhi

Join us for both segments at www.youtube.com/who

Segment 3

100 Years of Insulin ̶ Celebrating Its Impact on Our Lives

This segment, organized by the University of Toronto, will focus on the latest approaches to using insulin, the experiences of people living with diabetes, and how research on insulin is changing.

Uber, PayPal and Walgreens Introduce Vaccine Access Fund

SAN JOSE, Calif., April 12, 2021– Today, PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: PYPL), Uber Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: UBER) and Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ: WBA) launched their new Vaccine Access Fund that allows customers to donate to vaccine access efforts to help connect people without transportation to COVID-19 vaccination sites, particularly those in underserved communities. Additionally, starting today customers can donate to the Vaccine Access Fund directly through the Uber app using a new donate feature supported by PayPal Giving Fund.

Vaccine Access Fund
Almost half of Americans do not have access to public transportation, and millions of them miss doctor’s appointments every year because they do not have transportation. In underserved communities, which have been hardest hit by the pandemic, the lack of transportation is of particular concern. To address this, Uber, PayPal and Walgreens are joining forces to help ensure transportation is not a barrier to vaccine access, as we navigate an inclusive recovery from COVID-19.

The coalition – comprised of Uber, PayPal and Walgreens – is donating $11 million dollars to the Vaccine Access Fund to provide free rides for people in underserved communities to get to a vaccination site, and today, the coalition is calling on customers to help too. People can support the Vaccine Access Fund by donating to PayPal Giving Fund, which is a registered 501(c)(3) charity, by visiting: https://www.paypal.com/vaccineaccessfund.

Donations to the Vaccine Access Fund will be granted to and managed by Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), a national community development organization. LISC will identify and work with local nonprofits and other partners that will coordinate free rides for people in their communities, as part of broader efforts around vaccine education and equity. Any surplus of funds will be used to continue the coalition’s commitment to help advance health equity, including ensuring people in underserved communities do not miss medical appointments due to lack of transportation.

Uber is also introducing its new seamless donate feature, which lets customers donate to the cause with a few taps in the Uber app. To donate through the Uber app, customers simply open their Uber or Uber Eats app, tap the donate message and choose their donation amount. Uber is leveraging PayPal’s giving platform, and donations will be made to PayPal Giving Fund to support the Vaccine Access Fund.

Today’s news follows the call to action issued by the White House in February and the initial announcement that Uber, PayPal and Walgreens are building a coalition to increase access to vaccines, with a focus on addressing the needs of underserved communities. PayPal also announced at this time it was making a corporate donation of $5 million to fund additional free or discounted rides. For more information on equitable vaccine access and how you can help, visit: https://www.uber.com/us/en/coronavirus/ or to donate visit: https://www.paypal.com/vaccineaccessfund.

About PayPal
PayPal has remained at the forefront of the digital payment revolution for more than 20 years. By leveraging technology to make financial services and commerce more convenient, affordable, and secure, the PayPal platform is empowering more than 377 million consumers and merchants in more than 200 markets to join and thrive in the global economy. For more information, visit paypal.com.

About Uber
Uber’s mission is to create opportunity through movement. We started in 2010 to solve a simple problem: how do you get access to a ride at the touch of a button? More than 15 billion trips later, we’re building products to get people closer to where they want to be. By changing how people, food, and things move through cities, Uber is a platform that opens up the world to new possibilities.

PayPal Media Contact
Juliet Niczewicz
jniczewicz@paypal.com

Airway Therapeutics Announces FDA Acceptance of IND for AT-100’s Second Indication in Severe COVID-19 Patients

CINCINNATI, April 12, 2021 — Airway Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing a new class of biologics to break the cycle of injury and inflammation for patients with respiratory and inflammatory diseases, today announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted its Investigational New Drug (IND) application to develop AT-100 (rhSP-D) as a treatment for COVID-19. Airway is leveraging the FDA’s Coronavirus Treatment Acceleration Program (CTAP) that is aimed at evaluating new treatment options for COVID-19.

Airway will initiate a Phase 1b clinical trial to confirm the feasibility of intratracheal administrations of AT-100 and its beneficial safety and tolerability profile.

Airway’s novel human recombinant protein AT-100 – an engineered version of an endogenous protein – has been shown in preclinical studies to safely reduce inflammation and infection while modulating the immune response across a range of respiratory diseases inside and outside the lung. Additionally, preclinical studies of AT-100 have shown potential to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 replication and promote viral elimination. AT-100 may also reduce secondary infections in severe COVID-19 patients who are mechanically ventilated in intensive care. This multidimensional approach differentiates AT-100 from other COVID-19 treatments in development.

“The pre-clinical data are encouraging and lead us to believe that AT-100 has therapeutic potential against COVID-19 by reducing infection and inflammation in mechanically ventilated seriously-ill patients who require a range of treatment options,” said Marc Salzberg, M.D., CEO of Airway. “We are excited to advance the clinical development of AT-100 with the goal of delivering a novel therapy for severely ill COVID-19 patients who are in need of new treatment options.”

In March, the FDA approved Airway’s first IND application to develop AT-100 as a preventive treatment for the serious respiratory disease bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) in very preterm infants. The Phase 1b clinical trial will begin later this month.

About AT-100
AT-100 is a novel recombinant human protein rhSP-D, an engineered version of an endogenous protein that reduces inflammation and infection in the body while modulating the immune response to break the cycle of injury and inflammation. Airway is focused on advancing AT-100 for the prevention of BPD in very preterm born babies and as a therapeutic for seriously ill COVID-19 patients. AT-100’s anti-inflammatory and anti-infective properties also make it a potential treatment for other respiratory diseases such as influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and inflammatory diseases outside the lung. The FDA and European Medicines Agency have granted AT-100 Orphan Drug Designation.

About Airway Therapeutics
Airway Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company developing a new class of biologics to break the cycle of injury and inflammation for patients with respiratory and inflammatory diseases, beginning with the most vulnerable populations. The company is advancing the novel recombinant human protein rhSP-D, an engineered version of an endogenous protein that reduces inflammation and infection in the body while modulating the immune response. AT-100 is Airway’s first candidate in development for prevention of BPD in very preterm infants and for treatment of COVID-19 in seriously ill mechanically ventilated patients. To learn more, visit https://www.airwaytherapeutics.com.

Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1122328/Airway_Therapeutics_Logo.jpg

CONTACT: Meghan Riley, riley@airwaytherapeutics.com

SOURCE Airway Therapeutics, Inc.

COVID-19 Highlights Urgent Need To Reboot Global Effort To End Tuberculosis

An estimated 1.4 million fewer people received care for tuberculosis (TB) in 2020 than in 2019, according to preliminary data compiled by the World Health Organization (WHO) from over 80 countries- a reduction of 21% from 2019. The countries with the biggest relative gaps were Indonesia (42%), South Africa (41%), Philippines (37%) and India (25%).

“The effects of COVID-19 go far beyond the death and disease caused by the virus itself. The disruption to essential services for people with TB is just one tragic example of the ways the pandemic is disproportionately affecting some of the world’s poorest people, who were already at higher risk for TB,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “These sobering data point to the need for countries to make universal health coverage a key priority as they respond to and recover from the pandemic, to ensure access to essential services for TB and all diseases.”

Building up health systems so everyone can get the services they need is key. Some countries have already taken steps to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on service delivery, by strengthening infection control; expanding use of digital technologies to provide remote advice and support, and providing home-based TB prevention and care.

But many people who have TB are unable to access the care they need. WHO fears that over half a million more people may have died from TB in 2020, simply because they were unable to obtain a diagnosis.

This is not a new problem: before COVID-19 struck, the gap between the estimated number of people developing TB each year and the annual number of people officially reported as diagnosed with TB was about 3 million. The pandemic has greatly exacerbated the situation.

One way to address this is through restored and improved TB screening to rapidly identify people with TB infection or TB disease. New guidance issued by WHO on World TB Day aims to help countries identify the specific needs of communities, the populations at highest risk of TB, and the locations most affected to ensure people can access the most appropriate prevention and care services. This can be achieved through a more systematic use of screening approaches that employ novel tools.

These include the use of molecular rapid diagnostic tests, the use of computer-aided detection to interpret chest radiography and the use of a wider range of approaches for screening people living with HIV for TB. The recommendations are accompanied by an operational guide to facilitate roll-out.

But this will not be enough alone. In 2020, in his report to the United Nations General Assembly, the UN Secretary General issued a set of 10 priority recommendations that countries need to follow. These include activating high-level leadership and action across multiple sectors to urgently reduce TB deaths; increasing funding; advancing universal health coverage for TB prevention and care; addressing drug resistance, promoting human rights and intensifying TB research.

And critically, it will be vital to reduce health inequities.

“For centuries, people with TB have been among the most marginalized and vulnerable. COVID-19 has intensified the disparities in living conditions and ability to access services both within and between countries,” says Dr Tereza Kasaeva, Director of WHO’s Global TB Programme. “We must now make a renewed effort to work together to ensure that TB programmes are strong enough to deliver during any future emergency – and look for innovative ways to do this.”

G7 Leaders Commit US$ 4.3 billion To Finance Global Equitable Access To Tests, Treatments And Vaccines In 2021

GENEVA: Commitments made at today’s Virtual G7 leaders meeting hosted by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and at the Munich Security Conference later in the day, signaled significant progress in the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic with an important underscoring of the need for global equity in access to test, treatments, and vaccines.

Leaders recognised that no country can be safe until every country is safe and collectively committed over US $4.3 billion to the ACT Accelerator partnership to develop and distribute effective tests, treatments, and vaccines around the world. https://www.g7uk.org/joint-statement-of-g7-leaders-19-february-2021/

Contributions were made up as follows:

· The US committed initial $2 billion to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance for the COVAX Advance Market Commitment and a further $2 billion through 2021 and 2022, of which the first $500 million will be made available when existing donor pledges are fulfilled and initial doses are delivered to AMC countries.

· Germany committed US$ 1.8 billion[i] with contributions to all pillars and partners of the ACT Accelerator across tests, treatments, vaccines, and health systems strengthening.

· The European Commission committed US$ 363 million[ii] for the COVAX Advance Market Commitment.

· Japan committed US$ 79 million for the COVAX Advance Market Commitment and UNITAID.

· Canada committed US$ 59 million to the ACT Accelerator.[iii]

In addition, the European Investment Bank is providing a further US$ 242 million[iv] in loan guarantees which will help the ACT Accelerator partnership to frontload future payments to speed up the response.

The UK’s commitment to join Canada, France, Norway and the European Union in sharing its additional vaccine doses with developing countries is a vital step to increase volume of vaccines available worldwide and support rapid reduction of virus transmission amongst some of the world’s our most vulnerable and exposed populations.

The ACT Accelerator initial needs for 2020-2021 were US $38.1 billion. Prior to today, an unprecedented mobilization of sovereign donors, private sectors, philanthropic and multilateral contributors had already committed US $ 6 billion. Considering those pledges, and costs adjustments, today’s new contributions bring the total committed to the ACT Accelerator partnership to US$ 10.3 billion and reduce the funding gap to US$ 22.9 billion.

The next few weeks will be critical for the global COVID-19 response. Further commitments are needed to fully fund the work of the ACT Accelerator and enable the delivery of more than 2 billion doses of vaccine; medical oxygen and millions of treatment doses including dexamethasone and new products, as and when they become available; and over 900 million diagnostic tests including high-quality, lower-cost molecular tests, antigen detection RDTs (Ag-RDTs) and self-tests. This work will also support the urgent need for rapid R&D, product evaluation, and regulatory pathways for new and modified tests, treatments and vaccines to meet the needs of global response programmes and the threat of new and emerging variants.

Global health leaders responded to today’s announcements:

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO, said: “I thank the US, Germany, the European Commission, the European Investment Bank, Japan, and Canada for their significant funding commitments. Today’s news shows us solidarity prevails; we can turn a corner on this pandemic by funding the only global solution to end it. History will judge us collectively and I welcome the words of support from today’s G7 Leaders and the Munich Security Council for again highlighting to the world that we have to solve this together.”

Dr. Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, said: “This support for the Gavi COVAX AMC shows great commitment to equitable, global access to COVID-19 vaccines and is a major boost to our efforts to end the acute phase of the pandemic. We thank G7 countries, and particularly Germany and the United States, as well as the EU, for this strong leadership in the fields of global health and global health security.”

Dr Catharina Boehme, CEO of FIND, said: “Today’s new commitment is gladly welcomed. Over a year into the pandemic, inequality in testing remains across the globe, meaning that many countries are still flying blind in their pandemic response even as new variants emerge. For every test conducted in Africa, Europe is conducting 33. The pandemic will not be defeated until every country can access the tests, treatments and vaccines it needs to keep everyone safe.”

Peter Sands, Executive Director of Global Fund, said: “The Global Fund welcomes these significant contributions to the ACT-Accelerator. As the virus evolves, it is important to ensure equitable access to tests, treatments, vaccines and PPE to defeat COVID-19 and save lives. Galvanizing a bolder, faster and more unified response should be a top priority for everyone. The longer COVID-19 is left unchecked in some parts of the world, the more the risk of new variants and the greater the knock-on impact on economies and other deadly diseases. We must act together now.”

Dr Philippe Duneton, Executive Director of Unitaid, said: “Unitaid welcomes such strong commitment to the vital work of the ACT-Accelerator. Treatments for COVID-19 are needed to save lives and provide a second line of defense against a mutating virus. This investment will aid our work to ensure promising treatments reach people everywhere.”

Dr Richard Hatchett, CEO of CEPI, said: “We are entering a new and more complex phase of the pandemic. The emergence of novel variants that threaten to impact the safe and effective vaccines we have developed means that now, more than ever, we are in a race against this virus. It is paramount that we take this opportunity to not only push forward with our plan to end the acute phase of this devastating crisis, but also continue to focus on ensuring we invest in R&D, work for globally fair distribution, and build on our scientific achievements to meet the continued challenge of this pandemic. We welcome the G7’s leadership and focus on advancing COVID-19 vaccine development and deployment, in addition to their commitments to increase manufacturing capacity and share genomic sequencing information so that we can accelerate our work and continue to provide the tools the world so urgently needs. There is a moment of opportunity that we must now seize to collaborate in our efforts to stop the devastation of this pandemic.”

World Waking Up To Vaccine Equity

Geneva, Switzerland—- At the halfway point in the World Health Organization and Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’ 100-day challenge, a movement of people and organizations is now uniting together under the banner of vaccine equity. WHO welcomes the new commitments made by France, Germany, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America to COVAX and equitable allocation of vaccines. Backed by 190 countries and economies, COVAX is the global mechanism best positioned to deliver vaccines to the world and end the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There is a growing movement behind vaccine equity and I welcome that world leaders are stepping up to the challenge by making new commitments to effectively end this pandemic by sharing doses and increasing funds to COVAX,” said Dr Tedros, Director-General of the World Health Organization. “This can’t be business as usual and there is an urgent need for countries to share doses and technology, scale up manufacturing and ensure that there is a sustainable supply of vaccines so that everyone, everywhere can receive a vaccine.”

Close to 7000 people and hundreds of organizations have already signed on to a vaccine equity declaration that directly calls on governments and manufacturers to speed up regulatory processes, boost manufacturing by sharing know-how and technology, and ensure that doses are shared equitably. There is a specific call to start with all health and care workers, who have been on the frontlines of this pandemic for more than a year.

Heads of state and sports stars like Romain Grosjean; international agencies including UNICEF, UN Development Programme, UN Women and the World Food Programme; sporting organizations like the International Olympic Committee, World Rugby and FIFA; networks focused on faith, gender and youth, and civil society groups like the Elders, Global Health Council, Nursing Now, Pandemic Action Network, UHC2030 and Women in Global Health,*– these and many more have signed on to the broad based movement, which recognizes the moral, economic and global security imperative of equitable vaccine distribution.

Dr Keith C Rowley, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, and Chairman of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) said, “Today, thankfully we are at that place where we now have tested and proven vaccines. A brightening light is shining on our way towards a more successful response to the still marauding virus.”

The movement for vaccine equity is growing, and to prevent virus variants from undermining our health technologies and hampering an already sluggish global economic recovery, it is critical that leaders continue to step up to ensure that we end this pandemic as quickly as possible. Individuals and organizations everywhere are encouraged to join in this crucial effort.

COVAX Announces New Agreement, Plans For First Deliveries

Geneva/Oslo 22 January 2021 – COVAX, the global initiative to ensure rapid and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for all countries, regardless of income level, today announced the signing of an advance purchase agreement with Pfizer for up to 40 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine candidate, which has already received WHO emergency use listing. Rollout will commence with the successful negotiation and execution of supply agreements.

In further support of its mission to expedite early availability of vaccines to lower-income countries and help bring a rapid end to the acute stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, COVAX also confirmed today that it will exercise an option – via an existing agreement with Serum Institute of India (SII) – to receive its first 100 million doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford University-developed vaccine manufactured by SII.

Of these first 100 million doses, the majority are earmarked for delivery in the first quarter of the year, pending WHO Emergency Use Listing. The WHO review process, which is currently underway, follows approval for restricted use in emergency situations by the Drugs Controller General of India earlier this month, and is a critical aspect of ensuring that any vaccine procured through COVAX is fully quality assured for international use. According to the latest WHO update, a decision on this vaccine candidate is anticipated by the middle of February.

COVAX also anticipates that, via an existing agreement with AstraZeneca, at least 50 million further doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine will be available for delivery to COVAX participants in Q1 2021, pending emergency use listing by WHO of the COVAX-specific manufacturing network for these doses. A decision on this candidate is also anticipated by WHO in February.

“Today marks another milestone for COVAX: pending regulatory approval for the AstraZeneca/Oxford candidate and pending the successful conclusion of the supply agreement for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, we anticipate being able to begin deliveries of life-saving COVID-19 vaccines by the end of February. This is not just significant for COVAX, it is a major step forward for equitable access to vaccines, and an essential part of the global effort to beat this pandemic. We will only be safe anywhere if we are safe everywhere,” said Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which leads COVAX procurement and delivery.

Preparations, led by WHO, UNICEF and Gavi, are already well under way for COVAX to deliver vaccines to economies eligible for support via the COVAX AMC, with Gavi making US$ 150 million available from its core funding as initial, catalytic support for preparedness and delivery.

“The urgent and equitable rollout of vaccines is not just a moral imperative, it’s also a health security, strategic and economic imperative,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization. “This agreement with Pfizer will help to enable COVAX to save lives, stabilize health systems and drive the global economic recovery.”

Building on the work of the past months supporting country readiness efforts, a “Country Readiness Portal” will be launched by WHO this month, which will allow AMC participants to submit final national deployment and vaccination plans (NDVPs). This is a vital step before allocations can be made, to ensure that delivered doses are able to be effectively deployed and to identify where, if necessary, further support is needed.

“These purchase agreements open the door for these lifesaving vaccines to become available to people in the most vulnerable countries,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. “But at the same time we are securing vaccines we must also ensure that countries are ready to receive them, deploy them, and build trust in them.”

The COVAX Facility intends to provide all 190 participating economies with an indicative allocation of doses by the end of this month. This indicative allocation will provide interim guidance to participants – offering a minimum planning scenario to enable preparations for the final allocation of the number of doses each participant will receive in the first rounds of vaccine distribution.

Supply update

COVAX now has agreements in place to access just over two billion doses of several promising vaccine candidates. Negotiations continue for further doses to be secured through existing R&D agreements by COVAX co-lead the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), through evaluations of new products with promising results and through contributions from donors.

Based on this, COVAX anticipates being able to provide participating economies doses of safe and effective vaccines – enough to protect health care and other frontline workers as well as some high-risk individuals – beginning in Q1 2021. The aim is to protect at least 20% of each participating population by the end of the year – unless a participant has requested a lower percentage of doses. At least 1.3 billion of these doses will be made available to the 92 economies eligible for the Gavi COVAX AMC by the end of 2021.

To meet its goal of securing two billion safe and effective vaccines in 2021, COVAX has built a diverse portfolio of vaccine candidates which mitigates the risk of a product failing development, production or regulatory processes, and ensures availability of products suitable for various contexts and settings. This work will continue at pace to enable further supply of vaccines suitable for use across a wide range of populations and settings in 2021 and beyond.

“The progress in vaccine development so far has been extraordinary, and it is clear that we are now assembling the tools we need to bring the acute phase of the pandemic to an end. But we cannot afford to slow our efforts given the speed with which this pandemic continues to wreak havoc,” said Dr Richard Hatchett, CEO of CEPI. “The emergence of new variants of COVID-19 puts into sharp focus the need for us to be one step ahead of the virus by continuing to invest in vaccine R&D – specifically for next-generation vaccine candidates and to be ready for strain changes in existing vaccines – to ensure we have the tools to meet the needs of all populations in all countries for the long term.”

About COVAX
COVAX, the vaccines pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, is co-led by CEPI, Gavi and WHO – working in partnership with developed and developing country vaccine manufacturers, UNICEF, the World Bank, and others. It is the only global initiative that is working with governments and manufacturers to ensure COVID-19 vaccines are available worldwide to both higher-income and lower-income countries.

CEPI is leading on the COVAX vaccine research and development portfolio, investing in R&D across a variety of promising candidates, with the goal to support development of three safe and effective vaccines which can be made available to countries participating in the COVAX Facility. As part of this work, CEPI has secured first right of refusal to potentially over one billion doses for the COVAX Facility to a number of candidates, and made strategic investments in vaccine manufacturing, which includes reserving capacity to manufacture doses of COVAX vaccines at a network of facilities, and securing glass vials to hold 2 billion doses of vaccine. CEPI is also investing in the ‘next generation’ of vaccine candidates, which will give the world additional options to control COVID-19 in the future.

Gavi is leading on procurement and delivery for COVAX, coordinating the design and implementation of the COVAX Facility and the COVAX AMC and working with Alliance partners UNICEF and WHO, along with governments, on country readiness and delivery. The COVAX Facility is the global pooled procurement mechanism for COVID-19 vaccines through which COVAX will ensure fair and equitable access to vaccines for all 190 participating economies, using an allocation framework formulated by WHO. The COVAX Facility will do this by pooling buying power from participating economies and providing volume guarantees across a range of promising vaccine candidates. The Gavi COVAX AMC is the financing mechanism that will support the participation of 92 low- and middle-income countries in the Facility, enabling access to donor-funded doses of safe and effective vaccines. UNICEF and the Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO) will be acting as procurement coordinators for the COVAX Facility, helping deliver vaccines to all participants.

WHO has multiple roles within the COVAX: among other things it supports countries as they prepare to receive and administer vaccines and does so in partnership with UNICEF. It provides normative guidance on vaccine policy, regulation, safety, R&D, allocation, and country readiness and delivery. Its Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization develops evidence-based immunization policy recommendations. Its Emergency Use Listing (EUL)/prequalification programmes ensure harmonized review and authorization across member states. It provides global coordination and member state support on vaccine safety monitoring. It developed the target product profiles for COVID-19 vaccines and provides R&D technical coordination. Along with COVAX partners, it is developing a no-fault compensation scheme for indemnification and liability issues. COVAX is part of the Act accelerator which WHO launched with partners in 2020.

About Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance
Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance is a public-private partnership that helps vaccinate half the world’s children against some of the world’s deadliest diseases. Since its inception in 2000, Gavi has helped to immunise a whole generation – over 822 million children – and prevented more than 14 million deaths, helping to halve child mortality in 73 lower-income countries. Gavi also plays a key role in improving global health security by supporting health systems as well as funding global stockpiles for Ebola, cholera, meningitis and yellow fever vaccines. After two decades of progress, Gavi is now focused on protecting the next generation and reaching the unvaccinated children still being left behind, employing innovative finance and the latest technology – from drones to biometrics – to save millions more lives, prevent outbreaks before they can spread and help countries on the road to self-sufficiency. Learn more at www.gavi.org and connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

The Vaccine Alliance brings together developing country and donor governments, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank, the vaccine industry, technical agencies, civil society, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other private sector partners. View the full list of donor governments and other leading organizations that fund Gavi’s work here.

About CEPI
CEPI is an innovative partnership between public, private, philanthropic, and civil organisations, launched at Davos in 2017, to develop vaccines to stop future epidemics. CEPI has moved with great urgency and in coordination with WHO in response to the emergence of COVID-19. CEPI has initiated 11 partnerships to develop vaccines against the novel coronavirus. The programmes are leveraging rapid response platforms already supported by CEPI as well as new partnerships.

Before the emergence of COVID-19, CEPI’s priority diseases included Ebola virus, Lassa virus, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus, Nipah virus, Rift Valley Fever and Chikungunya virus. CEPI also invested in platform technologies that can be used for rapid vaccine and immunoprophylactic development against unknown pathogens (Disease X).

About WHO
The World Health Organization provides global leadership in public health within the United Nations system. Founded in 1948, WHO works with 194 Member States, across six regions and from more than 150 offices, to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable. Our goal for 2019-2023 is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and wellbeing.

For updates on COVID-19 and public health advice to protect yourself from coronavirus, visit www.who.int and follow WHO on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest, Snapchat, YouTube

About ACT-Accelerator
The Access to COVID-19 Tools ACT-Accelerator, is a new, ground-breaking global collaboration to accelerate the development, production, and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines. It was set up in response to a call from G20 leaders in March and launched by the WHO, European Commission, France and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in April 2020.

The ACT-Accelerator is not a decision-making body or a new organisation, but works to speed up collaborative efforts among existing organisations to end the pandemic. It is a framework for collaboration that has been designed to bring key players around the table with the goal of ending the pandemic as quickly as possible through the accelerated development, equitable allocation, and scaled up delivery of tests, treatments and vaccines, thereby protecting health systems and restoring societies and economies in the near term. It draws on the experience of leading global health organisations which are tackling the world’s toughest health challenges, and who, by working together, are able to unlock new and more ambitious results against COVID-19. Its members share a commitment to ensure all people have access to all the tools needed to defeat COVID-19 and to work with unprecedented levels of partnership to achieve it.

The ACT-Accelerator has four areas of work: diagnostics, therapeutics, vaccines and the health system connector. Cross-cutting all of these is the workstream on Access & Allocation.

Africa Needs Timely Access To Safe And Effective COVID-19 Vaccines

Brazzaville, 21 January 2021 – While the development and approval of safe and effective vaccines less than a year after the emergence of COVID-19 is a stunning achievement, Africa is in danger of being left behind as countries in other regions strike bilateral deals, driving up prices.

As of early this week 40 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in 50 mostly high-income countries. However, in Africa, Guinea is the sole low-income nation to provide vaccines and to date these have only been administered to 25 people. Seychelles, which is a high-income country, is the only one on the continent to start a national vaccination campaign.

“We first, not me first, is the only way to end the pandemic. Vaccine hoarding will only prolong the ordeal and delay Africa’s recovery. It is deeply unjust that the most vulnerable Africans are forced to wait for vaccines while lower-risk groups in rich countries are made safe,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa. “Health workers and vulnerable people in Africa need urgent access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines.”

The COVAX Facility – which is co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and WHO – has secured 2 billion doses of vaccine from five producers, with options for over 1 billion more doses.

“COVAX is on track to start delivering vaccine doses and begin ensuring global access to vaccines, said Thabani Maphosa, Managing Director, Country Programmes, GAVI.” This massive international undertaking has been made possible thanks to donations, work towards dose-sharing deals and deals with manufacturers that have brought us to almost 2 billion doses secured. We look forward to rollout in the coming weeks.”

In Africa, the coalition has committed to vaccinating at least 20% of the population by the end of 2021 by providing a maximum of 600 million doses based on two doses per individual disbursed in phases. An initial 30 million doses are expected to start arriving in countries by March with the aim of covering 3% of the general population, prioritizing mainly healthcare workers and other priority groups and then expanding to cover additional vulnerable groups, such as the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions. Most of the doses are expected to arrive in the second half of the year. These timelines and quantities could change if candidate vaccines fail to meet regulatory approval or production, delivery and funding face challenges.

To make sure that vaccines are transported and stored adequately to remain effective, WHO, Gavi, UNICEF and other partners are working with countries to support their readiness to receive vaccines by mapping existing cold chain equipment and storage capacity as well as providing technical support for countries to be ready to receive and manage the vaccines.

According to the WHO vaccine introduction readiness assessment tool, African nations are on average 42% ready for their mass-vaccination campaigns, which is an improvement on the starting point of 33% two months ago. However, there is still a long way to go to reach the desired benchmark of 80%.

As the largest vaccine buyer in the world, procuring more than 2 billion doses annually for routine immunization and outbreak response on behalf of nearly 100 countries, UNICEF is coordinating and supporting the procurement, international freight and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines for the COVAX Facility. This is the biggest, most sophisticated ground operation in the history of immunization. UNICEF is stockpiling one billion syringes and buying 10 million safety boxes so that used syringes and needles can be disposed in a safe manner by personnel at health facilities, thus preventing the risk of injuries and blood borne diseases.

“UNICEF has put in place a global network of freight forwarders and logistics providers to deliver vaccines as quickly and safely as possible as part of this historic and mammoth operation,” said Mohamed Fall, UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Director. “This invaluable collaboration will ensure that we have enough transport capacity in place for delivering COVID-19 vaccine doses, syringes and safety boxes to the front-line workers who ultimately protect the millions of children who depend on their vital services.”

All the 54 countries on the continent have expressed interest in the COVAX Facility. Eight higher and middle-income countries will self-finance their own participation, while lower-middle income and low-income countries will access the vaccines at no cost through the Facility. The vaccines distributed by COVAX will have received WHO Emergency Use Listing authorization and as such will have undergone stringent validation of their safety and effectiveness. However, vaccine nationalism is threatening the COVAX initiative.

The COVAX initiative has raised US $6 billion in pledges but needs an additional US $2.8 billion in 2021 and WHO and partners are urging countries and donors to contribute and help end the pandemic globally.

Dr Moeti spoke during a virtual press conference today facilitated by APO Group. She was joined by Thabani Maphosa, Managing Director, Country Programmes, GAVI, and Mohamed Fall, UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Director.

(END)

Scientists Tackle Vaccine Safety, Efficacy And Access At Global R&D Forum

More than 2,800 scientists from 130 countries gathered on Friday (January 15) in a virtual forum hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO) to identify knowledge gaps and set research priorities for vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

They discussed the safety and efficacy of existing vaccines and new candidates, ways to optimize limited supply, and the need for additional safety studies.

“The development and approval of several safe and effective vaccines less than a year after this virus was isolated and sequenced is an astounding scientific accomplishment,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, in his opening remarks. “The approval of the first few vaccines does not mean the job is done. Far from it. More vaccines are in the pipeline, which must be evaluated to ensure we have enough doses to vaccinate everyone.”

More than 30 million vaccine doses have already been administered in 47 mostly high-income countries.

But the global vaccine rollout has exposed glaring inequalities in access to this life-saving tool. Only one of the 47 countries that have started vaccination to date is a low-income country.

“The spirit of collaboration has to prevail in these challenging times as we seek to understand this virus,” said Dr John Nkengasong, Director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. “We have to be mindful of the inequalities and we must deliberately promote investment in regional capacities to level the playing field and have meaningful collaboration to begin to address some of the challenges.”

Experts agreed the need for critical research on administering vaccines in different target populations, as well as on vaccination delivery strategies and schedules. This includes trials, modelling and observational studies, all of which would help to inform policy.

They discussed the impact of emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants on the efficacy of vaccines, the impact of vaccines on transmission of infection, and the need to develop the next generation of vaccine platforms.

“The world needs multiple vaccines that work in different populations in order to meet global demand and end the COVID-19 outbreak. Ideally, those will be single-dose vaccines that do not require cold chain, could be delivered without a needle and syringe and are amenable to large-scale manufacture,” said Professor Mike Levine, Director of the Center for Vaccine Development at the University of Maryland.

The meeting concluded with agreement to establish a WHO-hosted platform for global sharing and coordination of emerging vaccine research information on efficacy and safety. The forum would enable scientists to share and discuss unpublished and published data and research protocols to further our collective understanding of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.

“The WHO will regularly convene experts from around the world, promote collaborative research, provide standard protocols and develop a platform for sharing the latest knowledge in the field,” said Dr Soumya Swaminathan, WHO Chief Scientist.

UNICEF, WHO, IFRC and MSF Announce the Establishment of a Global Ebola Vaccine Stockpile

NEW YORK/ GENEVA: The four leading international health and humanitarian organizations announced today the establishment of a global Ebola vaccine stockpile to ensure outbreak response.

The effort to establish the stockpile was led by the International Coordinating Group (ICG) on Vaccine Provision, which includes the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), with financial support from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. The stockpile will allow countries, with the support of humanitarian organizations, to contain future Ebola epidemics by ensuring timely access to vaccines for populations at risk during outbreaks.

The injectable single-dose Ebola vaccine (rVSV∆G-ZEBOV-GP, live) is manufactured by Merck, Sharp & Dohme (MSD) Corp. and developed with financial support from the US government. The European Medicines Agency licensed the Ebola vaccine in November 2019, and the vaccine is now prequalified by WHO, and licensed by the US Food and Drug Administration as well as in eight African countries.

Before achieving licensure, the vaccine was administered to more than 350,000 people in Guinea and in the 2018-2020 Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo under a protocol for “compassionate use”.

The vaccine, which is recommended by the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization for use in Ebola outbreaks as part of a broader set of Ebola outbreak response tools, protects against the Zaire ebolavirus species which is most commonly known to cause outbreaks.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is reminding us of the incredible power of vaccines to save lives from deadly viruses,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “Ebola vaccines have made one of the most feared diseases on earth preventable. This new stockpile is an excellent example of solidarity, science and cooperation between international organizations and the private sector to save lives.”

UNICEF manages the stockpile on behalf of the ICG which, as with stockpiles of cholera, meningitis and yellow fever vaccines, will be the decision-making body for its allocation and release.

The stockpile is stored in Switzerland and ready to be shipped to countries for emergency response. The decision to allocate the vaccine will be made within 48 hours of receiving a request from a country; vaccines will be made available together with ultra-cold chain packaging by the manufacturer for shipment to countries within 48 hours of the decision. The targeted overall delivery time from the stockpile to countries is seven days.

“We are proud to be part of this unprecedented effort to help bring potential Ebola outbreaks quickly under control,” said Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director. “We know that when it comes to disease outbreaks, preparedness is key. This Ebola vaccine stockpile is a remarkable achievement – one that will allow us to deliver vaccines to those who need them the most as quickly as possible.”

As Ebola outbreaks are relatively rare and unpredictable, there is no natural market for the vaccine. Vaccines are only secured through the establishment of the stockpile and are available in limited quantities. The Ebola vaccine is reserved for outbreak response to protect people at the highest risk of contracting Ebola – including healthcare and frontline workers.

“This is an important milestone. Over the past decade alone we have seen Ebola devastate communities in West and Central Africa, always hitting the poorest and most vulnerable the hardest,” said IFRC Secretary General, Jagan Chapagain. “Through each outbreak, our volunteers have risked their lives to save lives. With this stockpile, it is my hope that the impact of this terrible disease will be dramatically reduced.”

“The creation of an Ebola vaccine stockpile under the ICG is a positive step”, said Dr Natalie Roberts, Programme Manager, MSF Foundation. “Vaccination is one of the most effective measures to respond to outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases, and Ebola is no exception. An Ebola vaccine stockpile can increase transparency in the management of existing global stocks and the timely deployment of the vaccine where it’s most needed, something MSF has called for during recent outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo.”

An initial 6,890 doses are now available for outbreak response with further quantities to be delivered into the stockpile this month and throughout 2021 and beyond. Depending on the rate of vaccine deployment, it could take 2 to 3 years to reach the SAGE-recommended level of 500,000 doses for the emergency stockpile of Ebola vaccines. WHO, UNICEF, Gavi and vaccine manufacturers are continuously assessing options to increase vaccine supply should global demand increase.

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