
he 21st Stop TB Partnership Coordinating Board retreat and meeting officially started in Bangkok, Thailand, on Sunday, January 29th with the official opening ceremony held yesterday January 30th. Included are some exciting news from the meeting courtesy of Mark Harrington, Executive Director of the Treatment Action Group (TAG).
Today, the fourth annual G-FINDER survey tracking funding for research and development of neglected disease technologies was released. This year’s report shows that funding for product development is on the decline and product development partnerships (PDPs) have been particularly hard hit, as eight of the top twelve public donors cut their funding in 2010. Now is a time of tremendous opportunity, with dozens of potential products within the reach of patients–donors must commit to taking them across the finish line.
Yesterday, BBC News published an article on the WHO Plan entitled “Consolidated action plan to prevent and combat multidrug- and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis in the WHO European Region 2011–2015.” The plan outlines the problem as well as a solution that could save 120,000 lives if successful.
We invite you to join us for the Stop TB Partnership Working Group on New Drugs’ Annual Meeting 2011 at the Grand Palais in Lille, France, on October 26. Also, we are sponsoring a dinner on October 25 at Le Barbue d’Anvers in Lille to allow our Sub-groups (Biology/Targets, Candidates, Critical Knowledge and Tools, and Clinical Trial Capacity) to meet and plan for activities for 2012. Please make plans to attend both events.
The Stop TB Partnership has provided information and references to help partners to prepare a successful proposal to The Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. The call for Round 11 applications was released on August 15. Go to http://www.stoptb.org/global/tbfriends/ to get more information.
The United Nations (UN) released a report on July 12 on the progress made thus far on the 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The eight MDGs include: end poverty and hunger, universal education, gender equality, child health, maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, environmental sustainability, and global partnership. Key highlights and additional coverage on the report are included.
On June 6, 2011, the Stop TB Partnership launched the initiative Time to Act–Save a Million Lives by 2015 at the UN Headquarters at a reception hosted by Ray Chambers, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Malaria and UN MDG Advocate. If you would like to respond to this call to action, visit www.action.org.
The Stop TB Partnership has issued a Call to Action on Childhood TB. The call was an outcome of an international meeting organized jointly by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the Stop TB Partnership’s Childhood TB Subgroup in March. There was strong consensus among participants on the urgent need to make the voice of children heard through concerted advocacy efforts. Links are provided to information on the Call to Action and to a page where you can sign the Call to Action on Childhood TB. There are also links to previous coverage by the WGND on topics related to Childhood TB.