Strengthened partnership to speed access to diagnostics

Jun 07 2024

Following last year’s historic resolution to strengthen diagnostics (30 May, 2023) a new Memorandum of Understanding marks a step change in a strengthened partnership between WHO (World Health Organisation) and collaborating centre FIND, which acts as co-lead of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator diagnostics pillar. The move to speed up both innovation and access to diagnostics will support countries to implement the World Health Assembly (WHA) Resolution on diagnostics.

“We are proud to be signing this MoU with WHO, as quality and accessible diagnostic testing is the backbone of health systems, primary healthcare and health security,” said Dr Ayoade Alakija, Board Chair of FIND. “At a time when there has been three cases of H5N1 avian flu spillover events from cows to humans in the last month and an outbreak of mpox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the importance of diagnostic testing to identify outbreaks and quash them before they become major epidemics or even pandemics has never been more critical.”

As the key strategic partner for diagnostics, FIND will work with WHO and others to address a number of priority areas including antimicrobial resistance, infectious diseases like HIV, malaria and tuberculosis, and noncommunicable diseases like hypertension, heart disease, cervical cancer and diabetes.

“This MoU is a recognition of a long-standing relationship between FIND and WHO,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “It is much more than a formalisation of our collaboration, as it opens new avenues to jointly work together, save lives and improve health.”

The MOU, signed on 1 June 2024 at a ceremony attended by Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Dr Yukiko Nakatani (Assistant Director-General) and Dr Ayoade Alakija , marked a major milestone in the journey towards better health and well-being across the world, through driving innovation on diagnostic tests and also improving access to the tests to reduce health inequalities.

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