Public Seminar | Game Changers—Japanese Innovations in Combatting Infectious Diseases

The Friends of the Global Fund, Japan (FGFJ), in collaboration with the Global Health Innovative Technology Fund (GHIT Fund), held a hybrid seminar, “Game Changers—Japanese Innovation in Combatting Infectious Diseases” on Wednesday, March 1, 2023. The seminar convened on the occasion of a visit to Japan by Mr. Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (The Global Fund).

Ending the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria is one of the objectives set forth in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, the COVID-19 pandemic and the current challenging operating environment created by conflicts, crises, and natural/climate disasters have triggered the reversal of progress against these diseases, making it vital that we get back on track to achieve the SDGs target by 2030. An important key to this is new technologies that will be “game changers.” Whether it is more effective ways to prevent outbreaks of infectious diseases, diagnostics that more accurately and easily detect infections, more effective and appropriate treatments, or means to strengthen the pharmaceutical supply chain, innovations in technology will bring about products that are different from what we have seen in the past and can significantly change the course of the fight against infectious diseases.

In this seminar, the Executive Director of the Global Fund, Peter Sands, and the Senior Technical Manager of Unitaid’s Strategy Team, Carmen Pérez Casas, introduced the challenges that need to be solved in the fight against infectious diseases in low- and middle-income countries and the process by which the needed products reach the people on the ground. This was followed by a panel discussion in which Mr. Sands was joined by the CEO of the GHIT Fund, Dr. Osamu Kunii, as well as Japanese business leaders and researchers to talk about the current status and potential of product development and discuss ways to accelerate innovation from Japan. Panelists included Dr. Seiya Kato, director of the Research Institute of Tuberculosis, Yoshihiro Okada, general manager of the In Vitro Diagnostics Division/Medical Systems Development Division at Fujifilm, Masanori Kawasaki, project leader of the Tuberculosis Project at Otsuka Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Shigeyuki Kano, director of the National Center for Global Health and Medicine, and Yosuke Kaneko, CEO of SORA Technology.