Delivered by Rachel Cohen, DNDi Senior Advisor 

Thank you, Chair, for the opportunity to share the perspective of the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), an international not-for-profit research and development (R&D) organization.  

I will focus my comments on three critical points: First, the need for Member States to consider R&D as a key part of outbreak and pandemic preparedness and reflect this in the Political Declaration; second, the essential task of filling the empty antiviral pipeline, in particular, for pandemic- and epidemic-prone diseases; and third, the importance for Member States to implement key provisions of the Pandemic Agreement that accelerate R&D, improve science through knowledge sharing, and ensure equitable access to medical countermeasures that are developed.  

As we are seeing in real-time with the Bundibugyo Ebola emergency and other recent outbreaks, when no treatments, vaccines, or rapid tests are available, starting the R&D process once an outbreak has already been detected leaves communities, caregivers, and clinicians empty-handed. We can only get to the sprint of the race to develop new health tools by running the marathon before emergencies hit. Biomedical R&D must therefore be recognized as a core preparedness function, and this must be reflected in the Political Declaration. 

The situation is particularly dire for therapeutics, which is why DNDi, along with many other partners, urges Member States to commit to supporting and financing a Therapeutics Development Coalition in the Political Declaration. This Coalition aims to accelerate the discovery of new antivirals for pathogens with pandemic potential so that we have at least two Phase II-ready drug candidates for each priority viral family – before the next outbreak hits. 

But of course, we need to ensure that pipeline products are further developed during an outbreak and that they are accessible – innovation alone is not enough. No one in this room needs reminding that during COVID-19, access to the vaccines, treatments, and tests that were developed was profoundly inequitable and millions of lives were lost needlessly. The question, therefore, is how to ensure public investments in R&D will translate into the timely development of accessible health tools that can save lives and make a genuine public health impact. 

Public funding has played, and will continue to play, a key role.  While acknowledging that the Pandemic Agreement is not yet fully finalized and ratified, countries have a critical window of opportunity to put in place the necessary guardrails to ensure that public R&D funding delivers public value. This is precisely the intent of Article 9.5 of the Pandemic Agreement: to link public investments in R&D with conditions that ensure the development, affordability, availability, transparency, and equitable benefit of medical countermeasures. 

Countries can and should begin implementing Article 9.5 now as a tangible outcome of years of negotiations and commit to this in the Political Declaration. It represents a hard‑won achievement, as well as a specific obligation. Implementing it now will ensure that investments in R&D can deliver more equitable outcomes for all. 

Thank you.