PATH's contribution to global disease prevention recognized by US National Vaccine Program Office 2017 UpShot Award

The National Vaccine Program Office (NVPO) in the US Department of Health and Human Services has selected PATH as the winner of the 2017 UpShot Award in Global Prevention. This award program recognizes NVPO partners supporting the goals of the National Vaccine Plan.

The UpShot award comes as PATH celebrates its 40th year of developing and advancing innovations that save lives and improve health, especially among women and children. Working across vaccines, drugs, diagnostics, devices, and system and service innovations, PATH has a portfolio that reaches an average of 150 million people per year, with approximately 200 technologies and system/service innovations in the pipeline.

"PATH is honored to accept the 2017 NVPO UpShot Award in Global Prevention," said PATH's David Kaslow, vice president, Essential Medicines, and director, PATH Center for Vaccine Innovation and Access. "From our work on developing and advancing innovations that save lives and improve health, we know that a continued commitment to global immunization research and development is essential to ensuring access to safe, effective vaccines that can address today's preventable diseases and combat those that will emerge tomorrow. We look forward to continuing to work with NVPO as part of the global community to sustain the position of our nation as a leader in promoting the health and safety of Americans and people around the world."

Since its founding in 1977, PATH has made great strides in increasing access to vaccines for the world's most vulnerable people through its broad portfolio:

• Through the Malaria Vaccine Initiative, PATH worked in partnership to evaluate RTS,S, the world's first malaria vaccine, and is coordinating pilot implementation in Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi slated for 2018.
• PATH partnered with the World Health Organization and others to develop MenAfriVac, which has virtually eliminated meningitis A epidemics where it has been introduced in Africa and should protect more than 400 million people by the end of 2020.
• PATH assisted the governments of more than 20 low-resource countries in Africa and Asia in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of HPV vaccine delivery.
• PATH turned a little-known vaccine from China into an internationally approved tool to fight Japanese encephalitis with an estimated reach of 305 million people by the end of 2017.
• PATH has helped countries strengthen local vaccine manufacturing capacity to fight a number of diseases and develop creative solutions—such as temperature-stable vaccine formulations and solar refrigerators—to ensure vaccines reach the places they are needed most.
• PATH has partnered with national health ministries, vaccine manufacturers, donors, and international financing and regulatory organizations to strengthen health systems and respond to rapidly evolving disease threats.

In accepting the award, PATH's Vice President of Policy and Advocacy, Carolyn Reynolds, remarked:

"PATH's success in increasing access to vaccines around the world is due in large part to our ability to bring together expertise across every stage of the long and complex vaccine development process—from early discovery and clinical testing of promising candidates to regulatory approval and manufacturing to introduction and delivery. Coordination at global, regional, and country levels is critical to accelerating our progress toward preventing—and even eliminating—diseases that have kept communities from thriving.

But our work is far from over. Despite improvements in individual countries and a strong global rate of new vaccine introduction, global average immunization coverage has increased by only 1 percent since 2010. This slow progress not only impacts the world's most vulnerable people abroad, but Americans at home, as diseases are only a plane ride away.

The Decade of Vaccines, during which the targets of the Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP) were supposed to be achieved, is half over. Now is a pivotal moment to chart a course for accelerated action to ensure those targets are met by the end of the decade. Investing in global immunization research and development is essential to ensuring access to safe, effective vaccines that can address today's preventable diseases and combat those that will emerge tomorrow.

During its midcourse review of the US National Vaccine Plan, the National Vaccine Advisory Committee made recommendations for updating the plan to better achieve its goals. The GVAP should be the driving force behind US investments in global immunization outlined in this updated plan. In particular, the research and development of new tools should be aligned with those targets and the work that the US agencies do across the board to support global health immunization. It is essential that the Assistant Secretary for Health take up these recommendations for the good of all.

The NVPO—which just celebrated its 30th year—has played a critical role in ensuring that scientific evidence is informing US policy. We at PATH are grateful for the leadership of this office and look forward to working together as part of the global community to sustain the position of our nation as a leader in promoting the health and safety of Americans and people around the world."

PATH is the leader in global health innovation. An international nonprofit organization, we save lives and improve health, especially among women and children. We accelerate innovation across five platforms—vaccines, drugs, diagnostics, devices, and system and service innovations—that harness our entrepreneurial insight, scientific and public health expertise, and passion for health equity. By mobilizing partners around the world, we take innovation to scale, working alongside countries primarily in Africa and Asia to tackle their greatest health needs. Together, we deliver measurable results that disrupt the cycle of poor health. Learn more at www.path.org.

PATH's Center for Vaccine Innovation and Access (CVIA) brings together our expertise across every stage of the long and complex process of vaccine research, development, and introduction to make lifesaving vaccines widely available to children and communities across the world. CVIA's current portfolio encompasses more than two dozen vaccines either in development or already in use to protect against 17 different diseases, including diarrheal disease, malaria, meningitis, pneumonia, and polio.

Posted June 6, 2017.