Unitaid

Nigeria carries the highest malaria burden globally, accounting for an estimated 27% of all malaria cases worldwide.

In Abuja, Janet Ginnard, Unitaid’s Director of Strategy, joined the Honorable Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Ali Pate, alongside partners from the The Global Fund and RBM Partnership to End Malaria to discuss how stronger collaboration can support Nigeria’s malaria response.

The discussion focused on sustainable financing, local manufacturing, and ensuring effective tools reach the people who need them most.

As malaria challenges evolve, continued partnership and investment remain critical to turning innovation into impact at scale.

What if one of the greatest opportunities to improve child health isn’t developing new tools, but delivering existing ones more effectively?

Pulse oximetry helps identify children with dangerously low oxygen levels, enabling earlier treatment and better outcomes. But experience shows that availability alone is not enough.

Its impact depends on whether health workers can use it routinely, whether oxygen is available when needed, and whether health systems are designed to support effective care.

In our latest blog, we explore what pulse oximetry can teach us about scaling impact, and why stronger delivery systems are just as important as innovation.

Lenacapavir could expand HIV prevention options globally, strengthening the range of tools available for people at risk.

The recent rollout in South Africa is an important milestone. It also reflects a broader reality in global health: innovation alone does not guarantee access.

Ensuring impact requires deliberate action to shape markets.

Market shaping addresses the barriers that can delay or limit access, including price, supply constraints, licensing arrangements, and the risks manufacturers face when entering lower-income markets. Without these measures, even highly effective innovations can take years to reach scale.

Through coordinated efforts, Unitaid and partners are supporting a pathway to generic lenacapavir at an expected price of 40 USD per person per year, helping move from breakthrough science to sustainable affordability. Access turns innovation into impact.

Health systems are being tested like never before.

“The current conflict is a reminder that access to health products depends not only on scientific breakthroughs, but also on resilient systems that can withstand disruption.”
— Vincent Bretin, Director, Results & Climate, Unitaid

From climate change to conflict and global shocks, the challenges facing health systems are growing, and innovation must keep pace.

Today, dependence on fossil fuels across health supply chains creates a hidden vulnerability, putting the availability, affordability and reliability of essential health products at risk.

Building resilience means transforming the way health products are developed, produced and delivered: from accelerating low-carbon innovation, to strengthening supply chains, reducing emissions in manufacturing and logistics, and rethinking how care reaches communities.

In an increasingly unstable world, resilient health systems are not optional, they are foundational to equitable access to care.

Read more below.

The Lancet
Asian Development Bank
HealthCareWithoutHarm

What does it take for a health innovation to reach the people who need it?

Access depends on markets that work for the people who rely on them, yet too often the path from breakthrough to impact is still too slow and uneven.

Closing that gap means making health products more affordable, more reliably available, and less likely to be delayed when they are needed most.

It also means strengthening how medicines and tools move, from how they are bought and supplied, to how production is supported closer to where demand is growing.

Because innovation only matters when it reaches people, not just systems.

Find out more below.

A new step forward in HIV prevention in South Africa.

Today, the first doses of lenacapavir were rolled out, marking an important milestone in expanding access to a long-acting HIV prevention option given just twice a year.

For many people, this could mean a prevention option that fits more easily into daily life, with fewer clinic visits and less frequent dosing.

South Africa carries one of the highest burdens of HIV globally, making access to new prevention options especially important.

At Unitaid, we are working with partners to help ensure this innovation can reach the people who need it most, supporting implementation, advancing regional manufacturing, and helping pave the way for affordable generic versions expected to cost around $40 per person per year.

Because prevention only works when it reaches the people who need it most.

Extreme heat can degrade medicines, reduce their potency and compromise care before they reach patients. As temperatures rise, health products are increasingly exposed to conditions beyond their tested limits across supply chains, putting their safety and effectiveness at risk.

These impacts are most severe in low- and middle-income countries, where maintaining controlled storage and transport is often difficult. Strengthening access to climate-resilient, heat-stable products is essential to ensure lifesaving care remains safe, effective and accessible in a changing climate.

Learn more:https://unitaid.org/uploads/12858-Knowledge-Paper-Heat-Proofing-Health-Products-RGB14.pdf

Lenacapavir is a long-acting HIV prevention option that requires just two injections a year.

It complements existing prevention approaches, including daily oral medication (PrEP), which helps reduce the risk of HIV infection. However, daily prevention is not always easy to maintain. People may face barriers such as stigma, access to clinics, or difficulty taking a daily pill consistently.

A 2025 partnership between Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd., Unitaid the Clinton Health Access Initiative, and Wits RHI is helping translate innovation into access by enabling a pathway to affordable generic lenacapavir at around US$40 per person per year across 120 low- and middle-income countries.

The focus is on making lenacapavir affordable, scalable, and accessible so it can reach more people and support continued progress in reducing new HIV infections.

Find out more below