This alert is to bring important news to partners and colleagues about the Global Drug Facility (GDF). In the coming months we will be communicating with you on a regular basis about GDF and about access to quality-assured drugs and diagnostics for TB. We look forward to your feedback on this update.
Interim change in GDF’s leadership
The Stop TB Partnership is delighted to announce that Mr Thomas Moore has taken up duties as interim Chief Operating Officer of the Global Drug Facility (GDF). Mr Moore will oversee a critical period in GDF’s development, as the secretariat team is restructured and a new strategy unfolds.
Formerly Principal Program Associate, Management Sciences for Health, in Arlington, Virginia; he has most recently served as a consultant for GDF, providing technical assistance in TB medicine supply systems and sourcing of TB medicines. From 2002-2003 Mr Moore was on staff at the Stop TB Partnership and helped establish GDF. In 2009 he served as interim GDF chief operating officer when then COO, Mr Robert Matiru, was deployed by WHO to serve as project manager for pandemic influenza vaccines deployment.
"We are very fortunate that Mr Moore has come in to oversee GDF’s evolution at a moment of great overall change in TB care and financing. Not only did he play a key role in creating GDF, but he is a highly experienced professional with a 38-year track record in pharmacy management in the private and public sectors and at local and international levels," said Dr Lucica Ditiu, Executive Secretary of the Stop TB Partnership.
Mr Moore has broad experience developing pharmacy management programmes and providing technical assistance to ministries of health in a great many countries, including Angola, Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Honduras, Egypt, Ghana, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Kenya, Moldova, Mongolia, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Philippines, Russia, South Africa, Surinam and Viet Nam. He holds a Master of Science degree in Community Health Administration from East Carolina University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacy from the University of North Carolina.
New era for provision of second-Line TB drugs
MDR-TB is one of the biggest challenges facing the TB community. There has been widespread frustration with the all-too-slow scale-up of access for MDR-TB patients to accurate diagnosis, high-quality care and treatment with quality-assured, affordable second-line drugs. Progress is on the horizon because national programmes now have a new level of flexibility for procuring second-line drugs.
A new global framework
Following endorsement by the Stop TB Partnership Coordinating Board and the WHO TB Strategic Technical Advisory Group, a new global framework to support expansion of MDR-TB was launched one year ago (read about it athttp://www.who.int/tb/challenges/mdr/greenlightcommittee/en/).
Now national programmes need not pass through the Green Light Committee mechanism to expand and ensure access to diagnosis and treatment for MDR-TB. All they need is the will to do it, to create a bold scale-up plan and ask for support if needed. Regional Green Light Committee secretariat staff is available to provide technical advice. For more information write to glc_secretariat@who.int. (Countries using Global Fund grants must meet its requirements when procuring second-line drugs.)
GDF will soon be sending out a survey to Stop TB Partners to explore and better understand the obstacles to increasing demand for second-line drugs.
Partial procurement
GDF can now procure partial regimens for national TB programmes. GDF has an updated and improved order request form for processing drug-resistant TB procurement requests. The new document is suitable for partial or complete regimen deliveries through GDF. Please click on this link, http://www.stoptb.org/assets/documents/gdf/drugsupply/Procurement form MPTA 2012.docx for the new form, which all our clients should use in future. For queries related to the MDR-TB drug procurement, please contact GDF atgdf@who.int.
New suppliers of second-line drugs
GDF increased the number of quality-assured MDR-TB second-line drugs available for procurement through GDF from 11 in 2008 to 32 at the end of 2011. GDF now works with three quality-approved suppliers of MDR-TB medicines and two quality-approved suppliers for third-line TB medicines (for treatment of XDR-TB). GDF has established long-term pricing agreements with the suppliers.
A new strategy for GDF
GDF is developing a new strategic approach adapted to the realities of 2012 and looking towards the future. This includes decentralization of staff to regional offices, which will result in closer links to national programmes and more efficient provision of technical assistance and mitigate bottlenecks in drug supply. Various partners will collaborate with GDF on efforts to address bottlenecks from different angles. For example, GDF is collaborating closely with the Global Fund on a pilot project with this aim in Nigeria.
GDF is currently analysing the donor landscape regarding funding opportunities for grants of first- and second-line drugs.
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