DTMT Network

Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche through its Global Access Program, and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria are joining forces to build and strengthen diagnostic capacity and pandemic preparedness in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) fighting against HIV and tuberculosis (TB).

In a statement released recently, the pharma major said that it is partnering with Global Fund to improve the diagnosis of HIV and TB in LMICs by building local capacity to tackle fundamental infrastructure challenges for generating and delivering diagnostic results and managing healthcare waste.

Various estimates reveal that about two billion people worldwide are infected with tuberculosis, and 95% of the deaths due to disease occur in the LMICs, the company officials say.

Of more than 37 million people living with HIV globally, over 16% still remain undiagnosed, they further added.

While various estimates put the number of deaths due to TB between 1.18 to 1.21 million in 2019, experts say that the COVID19 pandemic has resulted in the disruption of HIV and TB programmes, which may push up the numbers in 2021.

“Roche is excited to join forces with the Global Fund and their partners to support countries in developing critical diagnostic networks in the global fight against HIV and TB.”, Thomas Schinecker, CEO of Roche Diagnostics said.

“Connecting our experts with critical local stakeholders, we are aiming to help build sustainable solutions that could be scaled across countries,” he added.

“Getting people to test for HIV and TB is fundamental to containing transmission and enrolling people on treatment, which are crucial steps to saving lives and ending these diseases as public health threats,”, Executive Director of the Global Fund Peter Sands said.

“We are pleased to partner with Roche in expanding access to diagnostics tools for HIV and TB. These efforts will strengthen the fight against these diseases and help the world prepare better for future pandemics,” he added.

Roche informed that through this collaboration the company will initially support assessments and implementation of new technologies and knowledge transfer in two to three pilot countries, and aspires to scale up and expand support in 10 countries over the next five years.

It may be noted that India accounts for about a quarter of the global TB burden and over 500,000 people died because of the disease in 2021, as per WHO estimates.