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PDP F UNDERS G ROUP
Items in blue or purple should be hyperlinked to the full text version; if I have made mistakes many apologies. If you have any issues that you would like to include in the Update please send them to Jane Rowley ( jtfrowley@btinternet.com
).
F UNDER A NNOUNCEMENTS ( SINCE J ULY 1, 2013)
10 July 2013:
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Announces Keith Klugman to Lead Pneumonia
Program
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced that Keith Klugman has been named director of the Pneumonia program. He will start work at the foundation on August 5, 2013.
Klugman was previously the William H. Foege Professor of Global Health and Professor of
Epidemiology in the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, as well as Professor of
Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Emory School of Medicine. He will continue to serve as Honorary Professor in the Respiratory and Meningeal Pathogens Research Unit at the
University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa.
Klugman has chaired or served on numerous expert committees for the World Health Organization
(WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He trained in South Africa and completed his post-doctoral research at Rockefeller University in New York.
26 June 2013:
NOK 244 mill. announced for GLOBVAC
The Global Health and Vaccination Research Programme (GLOBVAC)will in this call give priority to research on family planning, and maternal and child health. …
Priorities for this call:
1. Prevention and treatment of, and diagnostics for, communicable diseases with particular relevance for low and lower-middle income countries.
2. Prevention and treatment of, and diagnostics for, neglected tropical diseases.
3. Family planning, reproductive, maternal, neonatal, child and youth health.
4. Health systems and health policy research.
5. Implementation research.
6. Innovation in technology and methods development for maternal and child health in settings where appropriate technologies are not available or non-existing.
The application deadline is 4 September 2013.
24 July 2013:
Rapid test allows for earlier diagnosis of tuberculosis in children
A new test for diagnosing tuberculosis (TB) in children detects roughly two-thirds of cases identified by the current culture test, but in a fraction of the time, according to the results of a study in South
Africa supported by the National Institutes of Health.
The test, known as Xpert MTB/RIF, also detected five times the number of cases identified by examining specimens under the microscope, a preliminary method for diagnosis that is often performed as an initial test, but which must be verified by the culture test. … pert MTB/RIF results from respiratory secretions were ready in 24 hours, on average, compared with an average of more than two weeks for the culture test used in the study, the researchers found.
Previous studies have shown that Xpert MTB/RIF is effective for diagnosing TB in adults and in children with pronounced symptoms of TB who have been admitted to a hospital. Diagnosing TB in children is more difficult than diagnosing it in adults, because children tend to have much lower levels of the TB bacteria than do adults.
The results of the current study indicated that the ease and speed of diagnosis would be useful for

U PDATE 54: J ULY 1 TO J ULY 31, 2013 children seen in clinics in resource-limited countries, which often lack the resources for traditional testing that are available in hospitals. The test also was able to identify children with drug resistant
TB. In addition, the researchers found that Xpert can readily determine when treatment for tuberculosis is not appropriate. Among children who did not in fact have TB, the results of the Xpert test came back negative for TB with 99 percent accuracy. …
5 July 2013:
International network makes critical health and demographic data available
The International Network for the Demographic Evaluation of Populations and Their Health (INDEPTH) has launched two new data archives that will continue to build and strengthen capacity for research data management and sharing, giving global public health researchers greater access to health and science research in low- and middle-income countries.
The INDEPTH Data Repository is an online archive of high-quality datasets from INDEPTH member health and demographic surveillance systems centres. It is the first data repository that specialises in longitudinal population-based data from low- and middle-income countries.
INDEPTHStats is a website that has been developed by the network and is freely available to the general public. It will contain summary statistics, images and graphs of key health and demographic indicators generated from the INDEPTH member centres.
11 July 2013:
Fund launched to seed new thinking in sustaining the future of health
The Wellcome Trust today launches a global funding scheme to seed research into the impact of a changing world on the future of human health.
With the ever-rising global population estimated to reach nine billion people by 2050, the scheme responds to the pressing challenge of ensuring that everyone can live a healthy life, while meeting present and future ecological and societal needs in a sustainable and economically viable way.
The Sustaining Health call will support pilot research projects to investigate the issues at stake, as well as the impact of our behaviours as individuals and societies. The ultimate goal is to develop fresh approaches to prevent and mitigate the risks to human health. …
An initial fund of £5 million has been committed to launch the scheme, and the aim is to build research capacity for interdisciplinary research in this area that will be eligible to seek larger-scale funding from the Trust's existing biomedical and translational funding programmes. …
19 July 2013:
Study confirms rising global burden of sickle cell anaemia in young children
The global burden of the hereditary blood disorder sickle cell anaemia is increasing: it has been estimated that almost half a million babies will be born with the condition in 2050, according to a mathematical modelling study.
The study - conducted by researchers at the University of Oxford, Imperial College and the KEMRI-
Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kenya - suggests that implementing basic health interventions could significantly reduce death rates in children with the condition aged less than five years. The findings have implications for guiding national policy decisions on public health spending.
The researchers used estimated country rates of sickle cell anaemia (SCA) and information on projected birth rates to show that the number of newborn babies with SCA is likely to increase from roughly 305 800 in 2010 to about 404 200 in 2050.
18 July 2013:
DFID Research: Joint Global Health Trials scheme-fourth call for proposals
The UK Department for International Development , the Medical Research Council and the Wellcome
Trust recently announced the launch of the fourth call for proposals under the Joint Global Health
Trials scheme .
The purpose of this scheme is to provide funding for the best proposals to generate new knowledge about interventions that will contribute to the improvement of health in low and middle-income countries. A total of £15 million is available. This amount is expected to fund several awards.
The programme will give priority to proposals that are likely to produce implementable results and that are designed to address the major causes of mortality or morbidity in low and middle income

U PDATE 54: J ULY 1 TO J ULY 31, 2013 countries.
The scope of the scheme encompasses interventions of all kinds, including, but not limited to, behavioural interventions, complex interventions, disease management, drugs, vaccines, hygiene and diagnostic strategies. …
The scheme is targeted at trials led by academic groups, and not those led by commercial companies or product development partnerships (PDPs). However, applications are welcome from investigators from academic institutions who wish to collaborate with commercial companies or PDPs.
Studies should be based in low and middle-income countries. Preference will be given to those based in the following regions: Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and East Asia and the Pacific. The scheme also encourages Principal Investigators from these regions.
Applicants are asked to submit an outline proposal in the first instance using the UK Research
Councils’ Joint electronic Submission System (Je-S). Guidance on setting up a Je-S account and on filling out the Je-S forms can be found here .
All outline proposals should be submitted before 16:00 BST on the 1st October 2013.
For further information and to apply visit the Medical Research Council’s funding opportunities page
18 July 2013:
'Saving Lives at Birth: A Grand Challenge for Development' Names 53 Finalists for
Innovative Solutions to Infant/Maternal Mortality
The Saving Lives at Birth: A Grand Challenge for Development partners announced today the 53 finalists in its third global call for innovative ideas to save the lives of mothers and newborns in developing countries.
The Saving Lives at Birth partnership, launched in 2011, is a global call for groundbreaking, scalable solutions to infant and maternal mortality around the time of birth. Saving Lives at Birth is currently in its third award round and has funded 39 innovations to date, helping to address the 150,000 maternal deaths, 1.6 million neo-natal deaths, and 1.2 million stillbirths that occur each year.
From July 29- July 31, the finalists will compete in the final stage of the competition, where innovators will display their ideas in an open, dynamic marketplace, and development experts, fellow innovators and potential funders will meet and exchange ideas. Along with grantees from rounds one and two, finalists will participate in discussions focused on meeting the needs of women and children in lowresource settings. They will also attend workshops on business planning, market research, measurement, and monitoring and evaluation. The award nominees with the most promising innovations will be announced at a high-level forum on the last day of the Development X Change July
31. …
23 July 2013:
USAID and NIH Announce 16 New Health Research Projects
Yesterday, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.S. National
Institutes of Health (NIH) announced 16 new health research projects in 10 countries, which will focus on addressing some of the world’s most pressing health challenges. Through the Partnerships for
Enhanced Engagement in Research (PEER) Health competitive grants program, USAID will directly support scientists from developing countries working on research projects with NIH funded scientists.
The projects are the first to be funded through an initiative designed to foster collaborative global research in critical areas of health and disease research. ….
With these new awards, 16 PEER Health projects will receive a total of nearly $7.5 million from USAID for research in areas such as maternal health and child nutrition, family planning, malaria, tuberculosis, and viral infections. PEER Health awardees were selected from nearly 180 submissions through a competitive peer-review process, conducted by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National
Institute of Child Health and Human Development at NIH.
…

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11 July 2013:
Three Neglected-Disease Treatments Newly Added to the WHO Essential Medicines
List for Paediatric Use
This week the World Health Organization (WHO) released its newly updated 4th WHO Model List of
Essential Medicines for Children (EMLc), in which three treatments developed by the Drugs for
Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) and its partners have now been included. One treatment was also added to the 18th WHO Model List of Essential Medicines (EML) for adults.
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Artesunate-mefloquine fixed-dose combination (ASMQ FDC) was added to the EMLc for the treatment of malaria in children, and to the EML for adults, in line with current WHO treatment guidelines. ASMQ FDC was developed with Farmanguinhos/Fiocruz (Brazil) and launched first in
Brazil in 2008. After a technology transfer to Cipla (India), ASMQ FDC was prequalified by WHO in
2012, and registered in India, Malaysia, and Myanmar in 2011-2013.
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Nifurtimox-eflornithine combination therapy (NECT) was added to the EMLc for the treatment of late-stage sleeping sickness (human African trypanosomiasis) in children. Developed in partnership with Médecins Sans Frontières, Epicentre, and the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, NECT was launched and added to the EML for adult treatment in 2009. NECT is the first new treatment option in over 25 years for sleeping sickness. It has been implemented and distributed by WHO - supported by donations by Sanofi and Bayer - through national control programmes in the 12 sub-
Saharan African countries where 98% of late-stage sleeping sickness cases occur, replacing an old, toxic, arsenic-based drug that was commonly used before.
 Paediatric dosage form of benznidazole was added to the EMLc for the treatment of Chagas disease (American trypanosomiasis) in children. This child-adapted formulation of benznidazole - the main drug used to treat Chagas disease - was developed in partnership with Lafepe (Brazil) as an easily dispersible tablet for simple and accurate oral use in young children. The treatment was registered in Brazil in 2011.
30 July 2013:
The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation Reiterates Its Commitment to the Fight against Neglected Diseases
The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) recently renewed its support for the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), allocating a total of CHF 8 million over the coming four years
(2013-2016). The research and development for new treatments for neglected diseases contributes to the World Health Organization's global strategy to eliminate specific neglected tropical diseases by
2020. …
25 July 2013:
IDRI and Zydus Sign Agreement for Development of IDRI’s Vaccine Candidate for
Visceral Leishmaniasis (Kala-Azar)
In a unique partnership, Zydus, India’s fourth largest healthcare group and an innovation-led global healthcare provider, and IDRI, a Seattle-based non-profit research and product development organization, announced today they are collaborating on the production and clinical development of
IDRI’s visceral leishmaniasis (VL) vaccine candidate, designed to prevent the deadly parasitic disease.
…
Zydus and IDRI will collaborate to conduct clinical activities in India with the goal of developing, registering and marketing this vaccine candidate for the prevention of VL, while achieving the objective of global access – that is, ensuring the vaccine is affordable to and accessible by all people in need. Conducting trials in India, where there are real-life situations of disease exposure, is critical to determining the effectiveness of the IDRI’s VL vaccine candidate and ensuring it is approved and available within endemic countries. …

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9 July 2013:
HIV Research Pioneer Dr. Robin Weiss appointed chair of IAVI’s Scientific Advisory
Committee
The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) announces the appointment of Dr. Robin Weiss as
Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) effective July 1, 2013, to June 30, 2016. In this capacity, Dr. Weiss will also serve as the SAC representative to the IAVI Board of Directors. Dr. Weiss is Emeritus Professor of Viral Oncology at University College London (UCL) and will be the fourth SAC
Chair since IAVI was established in 1996. As SAC Chair, Dr. Weiss follows in the footsteps of previous
SAC Chairs Dr. Jaap Goudsmit, Dr. Ian Gust and, most recently, Dr. Reinhard Kurth – whose mandate ended on June 30, 2013. “It is a great honor to serve IAVI and to follow the previous eminent Chairs,”
Dr. Weiss said.
…
2 July 2013:
IVCC appoints Dr Nick Hamon as CEO
The IVCC Board of Trustees has appointed a new CEO to succeed Professor Janet Hemingway. Dr Nick
Hamon comes to IVCC with over 25 years' experience in product development in the crop protection and environmental science industries. Most recently he was Head of Sustainability at Bayer
CropScience, North America based at Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Before that he worked for Bayer as Vice President of Product Development and Sustainable Development and as Director of
Development and Technical Services, which followed senior positions at Aventis and Rhone-Poulenc.
Nick Hamon has a PhD in Insect Ecology from Rothamstead / University of Hertfordshire and a BSc in
Applied Zoology from the University of Reading. He is an adjunct Professor of Entomology at North
Carolina State University.
12 July 2013:
MMV’s Project of the Year 2012 awarded to scientists from University of Cape Town,
South Africa
The first antimalarial compound to be researched on African soil was named Project of the Year for
2012 by Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV). The compound, MMV390048, was developed by an international collaboration led by a team of scientists from the University of Cape Town (UCT).
The award was given in recognition of the potential of this compound to become part of a single-dose cure for malaria. Prof Kelly Chibale, the Founder and Director of H3-D, UCT’s drug discovery and development centre, received the award on behalf of the team at the International Malaria
Symposium at UCT today.
3 July 2013:
Innovative partnership to bring rapid test for river blindness to market
PATH and Standard Diagnostics, Inc., have entered into a commercialization agreement to bring to market a rapid test for the neglected tropical disease onchocerciasis, also known as river blindness.
The agreement paves the way for PATH to transfer the technology to Standard Diagnostics, a global leader in rapid diagnostics, to manufacture and distribute the only antibody test for detection of onchocerciasis designed for use in rural and remote settings.
Rapid test needs just one drop of blood
The test is based on the detection of antibodies to the parasite antigen Ov16, which was identified by scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The test was developed by
PATH and can be used by surveillance teams to monitor the progress of disease control and elimination.
The lateral strip test requires only a drop of blood from a finger prick, and results are available within
20 minutes. Existing tests involve a more invasive skin snip. …
12 July 2013:
PATH names Dr. David C. Kaslow as vice president of product development
International global health organization PATH announced today the appointment of David C. Kaslow,
MD, to the newly created position of vice president of product development, effective October 1,

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2013. In this new role, Kaslow will oversee the activities of all five of PATH’s product development programs, as well as PATH’s China programs, which also focus heavily on product development activities. Kaslow is currently director of PATH’s Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI). …
31 July 2013:
PATH receives award to strengthen immunization management systems
PATH today announced a five-year, US$19.5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to help countries strengthen their immunization management systems.
Grounded in the belief that routine immunizations and new vaccine introductions are two of the best investments to improve health around the globe, the Better Immunization Data (BID) Initiative will support low-resource African countries interested in improving their information system products, policies, and practices around data quality, collection, and use.
The BID Initiative is one of the first and largest data management projects of its kind, bringing together on-the-ground knowledge of immunization programs with a focus on eHealth and data quality and use issues. It recognizes that to improve immunization management, information technology is only part of the solution—and that it may not always be the right solution for all levels of the health system. The BID Initiative will invest in supporting existing and new national health information systems and help address the operational challenges health workers face in delivering immunization services.
15 July 2013:
Sabin Vaccine Institute Begins New Vaccine Discovery Initiative
The Sabin Vaccine Institute Product Development Partnership (Sabin PDP) announced the launch of a soil-transmitted helminth (STH) vaccine discovery program thanks to generous support from the Gary
Karlin Michelson, M.D. Charitable Foundation, Inc. Based at Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital, the Sabin PDP will endeavor to advance lead candidate antigens for ascariasis (roundworm) and trichuriasis (whipworm) infections and incorporate them into existing hookworm and schistosomiasis vaccines currently being developed by the Sabin PDP to create a vaccine against all four major human helminth infections. …
This new vaccine project will leverage the Sabin PDP’s programmatic and technical infrastructure to carry out discovery, preclinical evaluation, and early feasibility studies of Ascaris and Trichuris candidate antigens. Ultimately, one or both antigens selected for development could be added to the hookworm and schistosomiasis vaccines already under development by the Sabin PDP. …
R ECENTLY RELEASED PDP REPORTS / BRIEFING PAPERS / ARTICLES
Articles in Peer Reviewed Journals
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Efficacy of artesunate-amodiaquine and artemether-lumefantrine fixed-dose combinations for the treatment of uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria among children aged six to 59 months in Nimba County, Liberia: an open-label randomized non-inferiority trial.
Schramm B et al. Malaria Journal, July 2013.
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Tolerability and safety of artesunate-amodiaquine and artemether-lumefantrine fixed dose combinations for the treatment of uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparummalaria: two openlabel, randomized trials in Nimba County, Liberia.
Schramm B et al. Malaria Journal, July 2013.
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Antimalarial drug discovery – the path towards eradication.
Burrows JN et al. Parasitology. 17
July 2013.
Other PDP Publications/ Briefing papers
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EXPOSED: four part series of short films produced by AERAS
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MMV Annual Report 2012.
July 2013.

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RELATED REPORTS
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ARTICLES
Reports/ briefing papers/ books
 HIV-HCV-TB Pipeline Report 2013.
A Joint TAG i-base publication. June 2013.
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SLOW IDEAS: Some innovations spread fast. How do you speed the ones that don’t?
A Gawande.
The New Yorker. July 29, 2013.
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EDCTP Annual Report 2012 July 2013
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Innovative finance can boost global health R&D Trevor Mundel . SciDev.Net. July 9, 2013
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HIV/AIDS  9 July: Magical thinking? FEM-PrEP trial may have failed because participants used testing as prevention
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12 July: An AIDS-free generation is closer than we might think
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18 July: HIV/AIDS vaccines: Defining what works
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The search for an HIV cure: tackling latent infection.
Kent SJ et al. The Lancet
Infectious Diseases, Volume 13, Issue 7, Pages 614 - 621, July 2013
 An update on topical microbicide development.
McGowan I. Sex Transm Infect
Malaria
Other
2013;89:A6 doi:10.1136/sextrans-2013-051184.0014
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A modified SILCS contraceptive diaphragm for long-term controlled release of the
HIV microbicide dapivirine.
Major I et al. Contraception. 19 July 2013; 88(1):58-66.
 Assessment of topical microbicides to prevention HIV-1 transmission: Concepts, testing, lessons learned.
Friend D & Kiser P. Antivir Ther. 8 July 2013
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Kotloff KL et al. The Lancet, Volume 382, Issue 9888, Pages 209 - 222, 20 July 2013
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WHO's new HIV guidelines: Opportunities and challenges. Maye K & Beyrer C.
Lancet. 27 July 2013; 382(9889):287-288.
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Mapping the journey to an HIV vaccine.
Ackerman M & Alter G. N Engl J Med. 25
July 2013; 369:389-391.
 24 July: Advancing antimalarial drug research through open source initiatives
 1 July: INDEPTH launches a data repository and INDEPTHStats
 2 July: Millions of children to be protected from deadly diseases through unique global Vaccine Bond issuance
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12 July: New drug approvals for neglected diseases double from 2009-2012
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23 July: WHO prequalifies Japanese Encephalitis vaccine
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24 July: Big Pharma agrees to widen access to clinical trial data
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25 July: Drug companies pledge to make data more widely available
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26 July: Clinical trials paused as India adopts new rules
Measuring vaccine confidence: analysis of data obtained by a media surveillance system used to analyse public concerns about vaccines.
Larson HJ et al. The Lancet
Infectious Diseases, Volume 13, Issue 7, Pages 606 - 613, July 2013
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A database on global health research in Africa.
Collins F et al. The Lancet Global
Health, Early Online Publication, 5 July 2013
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Burden and aetiology of diarrhoeal disease in infants and young children in developing countries (the Global Enteric Multicenter Study, GEMS): a prospective, case-control study.
U
PCOMING
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EETINGS
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October 6-11 2013: 6th MIM Pan-African Malaria Conference Durban, South Africa
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October 20-24 2013: Seventh EDCTP Forum.
Dakar, Senegal.
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December 4 2013: EVI Rendez-Vous 2013. Heidelberg, Germany.