Unitaid

UNITAID is an international facility for the purchase of drugs against HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis. It was founded in September 2006 on the initiative of Brazil and France, and is to a great part financed by so called innovative development financing mechanisms, namely a solidarity levy on air line tickets.
Due to a growing number of Member States (35 as of April 2007) UNITAID's budget is expected to exceed $500 million in 2009 ($300 million in 2007)^[1] out of which at least 85% must be allocated to low-income countries. Hosted by the WHO in Geneva, the organization's principal strength is the negotiation of low prices for drugs on the basis of its strong financial means. UNITAID does not have its own programs for the distribution of medication but supports programs by its partner organizations such as The Global Fund, the Clinton Foundation, or the WHO.

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History

All political actions toward the establishment of UNITAID had been preceded by two major reports on innovative financing: The Report of the Technical Group on Innovative Financing Mechanisms [1] was formulated upon request by the Heads of State of Brazil, Chile, France and Spain and was published in September 2004; the Landau-report [2] originated in a request by French President Jacques Chirac and was issued in December 2004. Both documents present various opportunities for innovative financing mechanisms while equally stressing the advantages (stability and predictability) of tax-based models.
After these documents had been published, the countries involved in the process tried to turn the international community's attention on innovative development financing. For instance, in February 2005 a joint statement [3] was published by Brazil, Chile, France, Germany, and Spain offering ideas for the financing of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); in September of the same year a declaration was announced at a UN-meeting on the MDGs in New York, asking for further examination of innovative sources of financing [4]; this again was followed by an international conference on “Solidarity and Globalization: innovative financing for development and against pandemics”, held between February 28 and March 1, 2006 in Paris. In the follow-up of this conference, a pilot group on innovative financing of 44 countries was established, and France decided to introduce a solidarity tax on airline tickets, which entered into force on 1 July, 2006. Finally, on 17 September 2006, UNITAID is founded by Brazil, Chile, France, Norway and the United Kingdom - while not all of them use air ticket taxation to fulfill their commitment to UNITAID.^[2]
Since then, more countries have joined the initiative, among them notably 18 African countries that contribute to UNITAID's funds since Februar 2007.^[3]

Activities & Achievements

UNITAID's primary goal is to ensure access to drugs against the most deadly global diseases - HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis.^[4] In this context, UNITAID's secondary goals are:

• to negotiate low prices for already existing forms of medication and to purchase them in high quantities; and
  
• to incite the development and mass production of special drugs that do not yet exist or are not yet affordable, such as specifically dosed (paediatric) treatment for HIV/AIDS-infected children or medication for people that have become resistant to standard treatment (so called "Second-line" drugs).^[5]
  

Activities

UNITAID is not administering the distribution of drugs itself but seeks partnerships with other organizations. It will then only provide the resources for the purchase of the drugs in question. As a consequence, its activities are mainly focused on the identification of current needs by potential recipients, on the negotiation of long-term contracts with pharmaceutical companies both in the developed and the developing world, and the maintenance of relations to major actors in the field, such as UNICEF, WHO, the Clinton Foundation, The Global Fund against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Stop TB Partnership, and the Global Drug Facility/Green Light Committee.^[6]

Achievements

Despite its relatively short history, UNITAID has already set in motion various projects and has funded existsing programs. Some examples are^[7]:

• Anti-retroviral treatment (achieved price reduction: 40%) for 100,000 AIDS-infected children in 34 Asian and African countries by the end of 2007 (partner: Clinton Foundation)
  
• Funding of the treatment for 150,000 children suffering from Tuberculosis from September 2007 on (partners: Stop TB Partnership and the Global Drug Facility)
  
• Funding of artemisinin-based combination therapies against Malaria in 19 countries (partners: UNICEF and The Global Fund)
  
• UNITAID also provides money for a WHO program for the prequalification of drugs and will help UNICEF supply pregnant women with HIV test kits and special anti-retroviral treatment.
  

Structure

Due to its restricted scope of action, UNITAID has a very consise inner structure:

• The President is UNITAID's official representative. On 3 March 2007, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy was elected president of UNITAID for a two-year term.
  
• The Secretariat is located at Geneva, in the WHO-facilities, and is responsible for the day-to-day work of the organization. On 4 May 2007, Dr. Jorge Antonio Zepeda Bermudez (Brezil) will take office as the UNITAID Executive Secretary.
  
• The Board is the decision-making body of UNITAID. It decides on how the money is spent, which partnerships are being concluded, it sets the main objectives for the future and decides on action plans. The board has ten members, including five representatives from the founding countries (Brazil, Chile, France, Norway and the United Kingdom), one from Africa chosen by the African Union, one from Asia (South Korea), two from the civil society ( NGOs and communities of people living with the diseases) and one from the WHO.^[8]
  

See also

• The Global Fund
• WHO
• UNICEF
• Clinton Foundation
• Stop TB Partnership
• UNAIDS

Notes and references