Policymakers and public health experts from across the globe gathered on Capitol Hill this week to call on the United States to bolster its commitment to fighting the deadly diseases that afflict the developing world.
Organized by the Global Health Technologies Coalition, the briefing featured a panel discussion in which participants explained how vaccines, drugs, diagnostics, and devices can catalyze improvements in a country’s health infrastructure. Panelists also examined how the U.S. can assure that residents of the developing world have a voice in the development and use of new health tools.
“Thanks to U.S. investment and innovation, undeniable progress has been made in preventing, diagnosing, and treating conditions like HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and other neglected tropical diseases,” said Jana Armstrong, Executive Director of the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative North America, “But the fight against infectious disease is by no means won. American leaders in both the public and private sectors must recommit to this fight.”
Word on Health agrees, but wonders why the pharmaceutical and biotech industry wasn’t invited to the party. The Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDs, Malaria and Tuberculosis (GBC) was created to turn business assets into disease-fighting assets and has been pivotal in joining the corporate sector, governments and civil society together in common cause. Many pharmaceutical and biotech companies are members of GBC and have done outstanding work in this area. If you work for one of them, we’d love to hear from you.
SRxA's Word on Health 