UNITAID’s Market Approach inHIV Diagnostics

Brenda Waning

International AIDS Society 18 July, 2011

Rome

Presentation Outline

• Overview of UNITAID

• Description of UNITAID’s market approach to improve public health

• Summary of UNITAID’s current and planned activities in the area of HIV diagnostics

UNITAID: a WHO Partnership moving markets

PartnersWorking towards the common goal of

expanding access to health

• Est. 2006: Innovative finance mechanism based largely on air tax levies from north & south

• Geneva-based secretariat: no in-country offices – work with partners

• Work exclusively through markets to improve access to medicines, diagnostics and preventative items for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria

UNITAID Goal

UNITAID aims to promote “healthy”, dynamic market conditions whereby manufacturers have incentives to invest and innovate, while at the same time supply quality public health products at sustainable, affordable prices and in acceptable formulations that enable the maximum number of people to access them.

How UNITAID intervenes UNITAID’s role depends upon the particular circumstances in a given market:

• Market catalyst: identifying and facilitating adoption and uptake of new and/or superior public health products;

• Market creator: providing incentives for manufacturers to produce otherwise unattractive products with low demand that yield little profit but substantial public health benefit to those in need; and

• Market “fixer”: addressing severe market inefficiencies (e.g. grossly inaccurate demand forecasts and excessive transaction costs) that contribute to low access to quality-assured public health products.

UNITAID Market impact framework

Pathway from market to public health impactCase for intervention

Public health problem & commodity

access issues

Market shortcoming

and their reasons

Innovative market

intervention

Sustainable market impact

Public health impact

UNITAID Market impact framework

UNITAID Intervention example: 2nd line ARV market

Pathway from market to public health impactCase for intervention

HIV/AIDS & poor access

to anitretroviral

(ARV) medicines

High ARV prices from low demand

& lack of competition

Price negotiation,

demand creation, pooled

purchase, information

sharing, WHO PQ

Lower ARV prices, more

generic versions,

increase in suppliers,

competition & awareness

More people treated with less money;

benefits extend beyond country

recipients

Partners: Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), WHO Prequalification Programme for Medicines

UNITAID current & planned activities in HIV diagnostics (1))

• Landscape analyses• map the landscape (disease, technology, market) for

diagnostics across the 3 diseases• update every 6 months• internal value - inform priorities, decision making• external value: public good to other organizations

• Call for letters of intent (and then proposals) for projects to increase access to diagnostics in the 3 disease areas• expected launch: last week of July 2011• To be posted on website: www.unitaid.eu

HIV Diagnostics LandscapeReleased 1 June

UNITAID current & planned activities in HIV diagnostics (2)

• Create mechanisms to compare potential projects against UNITAID prioritization criteria:• Market impact• Public health impact• Innovation• Value for money

• Provide all inputs (landscapes, prioritization analyses) to UNITAID technical & decision-making bodies

• Continue dialogue with other organizations• this session: dissemination & feedback

Thank you

Contact Information:

Brenda Waning

Coordinator, Market Dynamics

UNITAID

Email: waningb@who.int