Global Fund and Partners to Invest US$54 Million in Laboratory Systems to Accelerate Pandemic Preparedness
25 May 2023
GENEVA – Today at the World Resilience Summit, IQVIA and (RED) joined the Abbott Fund, The Rockefeller Foundation and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in a US$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.
“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 defense against any infectious disease outbreak,” said Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund. “At a time when global health leaders are working toward 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 laboratory technicians can diagnose priority diseases like HIV and tuberculosis (TB) and can also rapidly mobilize diagnostic resources to respond to new pathogenic threats. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the same diagnostics equipment used to test for TB and HIV was rapidly repurposed to test for COVID-19, enabling countries 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 have demonstrated greater efficiency and effectiveness in their COVID-19 response. Integrating laboratory capacities, information systems and support services is key to enhance diagnostic service delivery and, as such, contributes to health systems resilience and greater capacity to respond to pathogens of pandemic potential.
The IQVIA-(RED) impact partnership will invest US$5 million in the Laboratory Systems Integration Fund. Doubling this impact, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will match every dollar from the partnership to the Global Fund.
“Every day, IQVIA works alongside our customers and partners to help improve global health,” said David Franks, Vice President, Global Public Health, IQVIA. “This impact partnership is the latest example of IQVIA’s commitment to improving health care systems in low- and middle-income countries, to ultimately drive health care forward and create a healthier world.”
The Laboratory Systems Integration Fund has already received pledges from The Rockefeller Foundation, which has committed US$15 million, with the Abbott Fund, the philanthropic foundation of the global health care company Abbott, pledging an additional US$5 million. On top of these commitments, the Global Fund intends to invest an additional US$29 million. This brings the total investment capacity of the catalytic fund to more than US$54 million.
“Partnerships like the one we are announcing today with IQVIA are key to building more resilient and responsive laboratories and global health systems,” said Jennifer Lotito, President and COO of (RED). “We can’t end the AIDS pandemic and prevent future pandemics without the life science industry. (RED) is delighted to add IQVIA to our dedicated family of life-science partners who are helping make preventable and treatable disease preventable and treatable for everyone.”
The Global Fund is the world’s largest multilateral provider of grants to reinforce formal health systems and support community systems to ensure no one is left behind. Over the 2021-2023 implementation period, we are investing around US$5 billion, or US$1.5 billion a year, in formal and community health systems – about one-third of our total investments. Our investments support improving procurement and supply chains; strengthening data systems and data use; training qualified health care workers; building stronger community responses and systems; and promoting the delivery of more integrated, people-centered health services so people can receive comprehensive care throughout their lives.