As an international non-profit organization that discovers, develops, and delivers treatments for neglected communities, the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) expresses its alarm at drastic and devastating cuts to global health programmes and assaults on international health cooperation. The fundamental values that underpin all of DNDi’s actions – of solidarity, collaboration and partnership, scientific integrity, and equity – are under attack.
The most neglected, vulnerable, and marginalized communities are bearing and will continue to bear the brunt of these decisions.
Our most immediate concern is for the millions of people who are at risk of losing their lifelines – including access to life-saving health tools and services – and livelihoods following funding freezes, stop-work orders, and other cuts to programmes around the world for HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, maternal and child health, and neglected tropical diseases.
As a research and development (R&D) organization, DNDi is particularly concerned about risks of adverse medical effects for people participating in clinical trials and other research that has been abruptly halted in defiance of medical and ethical obligations.
While we are still assessing the direct impact on our partners and on the neglected communities we serve, in the very near term, our R&D programmes and DNDi-sponsored ongoing clinical trials will not, on the whole, be affected.
We remain very concerned about the effects of cuts to R&D funding and have been alarmed to see that, rather than stepping up to fill gaps and strengthen international cooperation, some countries have further cut their global health and research budgets – which were already trending downward.
Others have indicated that they, like the US, intend to withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO plays a crucial role in setting normative guidance, including clinical guidelines, assuring quality of medicines and diagnostics, coordinating medical research priorities, and supporting countries in responding to routine public health needs as well as health emergencies. It serves no one, and certainly not the communities most affected by disease outbreaks or ongoing epidemics, to have a weaker WHO.
Now more than ever, DNDi reaffirms our commitment to equity and solidarity and to ensuring that the benefits of open, collaborative scientific research are equitably shared. Our actions lie in equitable partnerships that rely on a coalition of the willing. We call on the global health and research community in its entirety – all governments around the world, public donors and philanthropic funders, and the private sector. Together, we must defend fairness and health as a fundamental human right. We must re-commit to global health research and health service delivery, in particular for neglected populations, in order to ensure that life-saving medical innovations reach those who need them most.
