31 May 2013. UNITAID is seeking to fund new innovative projects in order to increase access to treatment, diagnostic, and preventive products for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), and malaria. In 2013, UNITAID made over $ 230 million in new grants available for a variety of projects.

Geneva, 28 May 2013. UNITAID’s approach to transform health product markets has delivered price reductions of up to 80% for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria medicines and diagnostics for the world’s poor, according to Results Beyond Investment, its 2012 Annual Report just released.

In TB fight, children must be a priority – World TB Day March 24

Geneva, 18 March 2013 – During a meeting with Philippe Douste-Blazy, Chair of the Executive Board of UNITAID and Special Advisor to the Secretary General of the United Nations on Innovative Financing for Development, and a representative of the African Leaders Malaria Alliance, the administration of the Minister of Finance, Mozambique, confirmed the country’s commitment to implement both a small levy on air ticket sales and financial transactions to raise additional funding to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Mozambique will become the seventh African country to implement the air ticket levy for such a cause, following Cameroon, Congo,  Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius and Niger.

Maputo, Monday 11 March 2013 - Dr Philippe Douste-Blazy, the Chair of UNITAID Executive Board, announces today in the presence of the Minister of Health, Dr Alexandre Manguele and other key partners, the roll-out of new innovative technologies to quickly and efficiently diagnose and monitor HIV and tuberculosis (TB) in Mozambique.

PEPFAR, USAID, UNITAID and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have finalized an agreement to expand access to GeneXpert®, a molecular diagnostic system that provides a two-hour rapid diagnosis of TB, TB/HIV co-infection and drug-resistant TB.

The report describes existing TB diagnostics and the pipeline of expected future methods and tools; characterizes unmet needs and the extent to which the pipeline may address these; and highlights areas of persisting market shortcomings.

Xpert, once introduced and widely scaled-up, is expected to dramatically reduce the diagnostic gaps for tuberculosis, in particular in its multi-drug resistant form, or associated with an HIV infection.

At the 65th World Health Assembly, UNITAID held a technical briefing to propose a new paradigm for middle-income countries to drive multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) markets for greater public health good.

UNITAID has made a name for itself by creating the market for child-friendly HIV medicines but did you know it is also one of the world’s largest funders of tuberculosis (TB) medicines for kids?