Updates
Global Fund Marks 20 Years of a Transformative Partnership with Unitaid to Expand Access to Health Innovation
GENEVA – As Unitaid marks its 20th anniversary, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the Global Fund) celebrates two decades of collaboration that have accelerated health innovation and expanded access to lifesaving technologies in low‑ and middle‑income countries.
The two organizations play complementary roles: Unitaid identifies and develops innovative health products, accelerating their market readiness and affordability, while the Global Fund focuses on accelerated market access and deploys these innovations at scale, enabling countries to adopt and sustain them at sustainable pricing. Together, the two organizations shape markets for health products, helping to ensure that lifesaving innovations reach countries faster, and at affordable prices.
“Unitaid has been an indispensable partner in helping turn innovation into impact,” said Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund. “As promising innovative tools continue to emerge, our strong partnership will remain essential to ensuring these tools reach the communities that need them most and support our shared goal of ending HIV, TB and malaria as public health threats.”
Over the past two decades, the strong partnership between the Global Fund and Unitaid, with the support of other partners, has accelerated the introduction and scale‑up of breakthrough tools across HIV, tuberculosis (TB), malaria and COVID‑19.
Advancing Innovation in the HIV Response
Unitaid was instrumental in pioneering the introduction of generic dolutegravir‑based antiretroviral therapy, enabling millions of people living with HIV to access more effective, better‑tolerated and affordable treatment. Through country-led efforts and global partnerships like the one between the Global Fund and Unitaid, dolutegravir-based formulations reach more than 24 million people living with HIV. Unitaid also contributed to lowering the cost of pediatric dolutegravir, which the Global Fund has procured and delivered to 50 countries through its Pooled Procurement Mechanism.
In recent years, Unitaid and the Global Fund – with their partners – have supported country readiness for the introduction of next-generation, long-acting HIV prevention options, including the dapivirine vaginal ring, injectable cabotegravir and, more recently, lenacapavir, while strengthening regional manufacturing capacity through initiatives supporting African‑manufactured HIV rapid tests.
Accelerating Progress Against TB
Unitaid and the Global Fund negotiated a nearly 70% price reduction for a short-course TB preventive treatment called 3HP. Unitaid’s work also sped up the introduction of a generic supply and formulations suitable for children. Since Unitaid first introduced 3HP in 2018, it has been scaled up in 78 countries; the Global Fund supported its rollout in an additional 14 countries in 2022 alone.
Recently, Unitaid and the Global Fund have worked as strategic partners to advance and scale up near-point-of-care (NPOC) molecular TB testing, moving innovative diagnostic tools from the pilot phase to widespread, equitable adoption in high-burden countries.
Expanding the Malaria Toolbox
Through initiatives such as the New Nets Project, the Global Fund, Unitaid and their partners supported the development, evaluation and large‑scale deployment of 56 million dual‑active ingredient insecticide‑treated nets from 2019-2022, preventing an estimated 13 million malaria cases and 24,600 deaths across 17 sub-Saharan African countries.
Recently, the Global Fund and partners launched a new initiative to accelerate the introduction and scale-up of innovative spatial repellent technology, designed to complement existing high-performing prevention tools like insecticide-treated nets. The initiative further builds on contributions from partners, including Unitaid, whose ongoing investments in evidence generation have brought spatial repellents to the market and continue to support their scale-up in countries most affected by malaria.
Responding to COVID-19 and Expanding Access to Medical Oxygen
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Global Fund and Unitaid joined forces with other partners to support “test-and-treat” programs to prevent hospitalizations and deaths for those most at risk in low- and middle-income countries.
Building on lessons from the pandemic, when both organizations mobilized financing to address acute oxygen shortages in low- and middle-income countries, the Global Fund and Unitaid joined other partners to establish the Global Oxygen Alliance (GO2AL). The alliance supports countries by financing oxygen production and supply, providing technical assistance and training, and advocating for equitable access to medical oxygen.
A Renewed and Strengthened Partnership
In June 2024, the two organizations renewed and reinforced their partnership, underscoring their shared commitment to advancing equitable access to high‑quality, affordable health products and innovations.