Yesterday, at the World Resilience Summit, IQVIA and (RED) joined Abbott Fund, TheRockefeller Foundation and Global Fund to fight Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), tuberculosis (TB) and malaria in a $54 million catalytic fund.
The Laboratory Systems Integration Fund aims to advance laboratory systems’ readiness and capability ratings in over a dozen low and middle-income countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America to detect and respond to potential local health threats before they become global pandemics.
Executive Director of Global Fund, Peter Sands, submitted: “If there’s one thing that we have learned even more clearly from COVID-19, it is that rapid diagnosis is the first line of defence against any infectious disease outbreak.
“At a time when global health leaders are working towards a pandemic treaty, this new catalytic fund demonstrates the will to fight today’s infectious diseases and prepare for tomorrow’s pandemics.”
Fully equipped laboratories and trained technicians can diagnose priority diseases like Human Immunodeficiency Virus
(HIV) and tuberculosis. They can also rapidly mobilise diagnostic resources to respond to new pathogenic threats.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the same diagnostics equipment used to test for TB and HIV were rapidly re-purposed for COVID-19 scanning, enabling nations to test for both diseases at once.
Countries adopting laboratory systems that are integrated across diseases have connected data systems and benefit from comprehensive support services such as integrated sample transport networks, as they demonstrated greater efficiency and effectiveness in their COVID-19 response.
Integrating laboratory capacities, information systems and support services is key to enhancing diagnostic service delivery and, as such, contributes to health systems’ resilience and greater capacity to respond to pathogens of potential pandemics.
The IQVIA- (RED) impact partnership would invest $5 million in the Laboratory Systems Integration Fund. Doubling this impact, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is to match every dollar from the partnership to the Global Fund.
“Every day, IQVIA works alongside our customers and partners to help improve global health,” Vice President, Global Public Health, IQVIA, David Franks, said.
He continued: “This impact partnership is the latest example of IQVIA’s commitment to improving healthcare systems in low and middle-income countries to ultimately drive healthcare forward and create a healthier world.”
The Laboratory Systems Integration Fund has already received pledges from The Rockefeller Foundation, which has committed $15 million, with Abbott Fund, the philanthropic foundation of the global health care company Abbott, pledging an additional $5 million.
Amid these commitments, the Global Fund intends to invest fresh $29 million. This brings the total investment capacity of the catalytic fund to more than $54 million.
President and COO of (RED), Jennifer Lotito, said: “Partnerships like the one we are announcing today with IQVIA are key to building more resilient and responsive laboratories and global health systems.”
