May 25 World Economic Forum side event to spotlight the case for elimination and potential financing solutions

Davos, May 18, 2022 – The Drugs for Neglected Disease Initiative (DNDi) and the Hepatitis Fund, with participation from the Coalition for Global Hepatitis Elimination at the Task Force for Global Health, are hosting an event during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland to highlight the urgent need for funding and investments opportunities to reach the goal of eliminating viral hepatitis by 2030. Despite the World Health Organization (WHO) Goal of eliminating hepatitis by 2030, many countries are not on track to reach it, and no major philanthropic funders have a hepatitis focus.

The May 25 panel, "An SDG Target We Can Reach: Financing Viral Hepatitis Elimination,'' will feature:
• Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand and Chair of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH)
• Dr. Rania Al-Mashat, Minister of International Cooperation, Arab Republic of Egypt
• Dr. Tenu Afavia, incoming Deputy Executive Director of Unitaid
• Moderator Dr. John Ward, Director of the Coalition for Global Hepatitis Elimination (CGHE)

"Now is the time for action to avert 4.5 million deaths from hepatitis,” said Dr. Ward of CGHE. “Innovations simplifying care, lessons learned from pioneer programs in countries such as Egypt, and health system transformations coming from the pandemic response make hepatitis elimination more achievable than ever.”

Existing investments from global partners have catalyzed the development and scale-up of national hepatitis programs in places like Egypt and Georgia. Such pioneers show how catalytic investments, multi-stakeholder collaborations, and national leadership can make great strides toward eliminating hepatitis B and C. However, innovative financing and blended finance mechanisms for viral hepatitis have been vastly underutilized, especially when compared to their use for other major disease areas such as malaria, tuberculosis, and non-communicable diseases. This Davos side event will showcase public-private solutions and blended finance approaches to make global progress toward hepatitis elimination.

"Our goal is to help foster the political will and financing needed for wide-scale roll-out of affordable and accessible life-saving testing and treatment for hepatitis C globally," said Dr. Bernard Pécoul, Executive Director of DNDi.

Finn Jarle Rode, Executive Director at The Hepatitis Fund, continued, "Through this event, we are pleading for all governments to come forward and support the SDG target 3.3. The enormous lack of  political will and government lead has been felt for too long and should be addressed immediately through a pledging conference this year, where we will secure the comparatively limited funds necessary to end viral hepatitis".

Event details:

Time: 12:30-14:30 p.m. CEST, Wednesday, May 25
Location: SDG Tent, Ocean Room
Event site with more information: https://sdgtent.com/event/an-sdg-target-we-can-reach-financing-viral-hepatitis-elimination/

About Viral Hepatitis

Hepatitis B and C are known as "silent killers." Globally, 354 million people are living with hepatitis B or hepatitis C virus. Hepatitis B and C cause 1.1 million deaths per year. Only 9% of people living with HBV and 20% of those living with HCV have been tested and diagnosed. Of those diagnosed with HBV infection, 8% are on treatment, while 7% of those diagnosed with HCV infection have started treatment. With the availability of reliable tests, highly protective hepatitis B vaccines, effective hepatitis B medications, and curative HCV therapies in hand, the World Health Organization (WHO) established targets for HBV and HCV elimination in 2016—a 90% reduction in incidence and 65% reduction in mortality by 2030.

Partner Information

The Coalition for Global Hepatitis Elimination, a program of the Task Force for Global Health, works to accelerate hepatitis B and C elimination by strengthening the capacity of national and sub- national elimination programs through advocacy, technical assistance, research, knowledge generation, and resource mobilization among partners united in a community of practice.

A non-profit research and development organization, the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) works to deliver new treatments for people living with neglected diseases, especially Chagas disease, sleeping sickness (human African trypanosomiasis), leishmaniasis, filarial infections, mycetoma, pediatric HIV, and hepatitis C. DNDi is also coordinating a clinical trial to find treatments for mild-to-moderate COVID-19 cases in Africa.

The Hepatitis Fund ("THF") is a Swiss Foundation designed as a collective funding platform to mobilize public and private financial resources globally to accelerate action to eliminate viral hepatitis as a major public health threat. THF raises and directs catalytic funding to programs and initiatives that can achieve a strong impact towards hepatitis elimination. THF aims to provide the spark that stakeholders on the ground need to set transformative action in motion. 

Contacts:

Capucine Penicaud
The Hepatitis Fund
cpenicaud [at] endhep2030.org
+ 41 77 50 34 795

Julie Smith
Coalition for Global Hepatitis Elimination
The Task Force for Global Health
Jsmith-consultant [at] taskforce.og
+01 404 991 1623

Frédéric Ojardias
DNDi, Geneva
fojardias [at] dndi.org
+41 79 431 62 16