Achieving Health for All and Meeting the Sustainable Development Goals
This event was a virtual session held at the Science Summit at the 77th United Nations General Assembly on achieving Health for All and meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through inclusive research and development (R&D) and equitable access.
This meeting was co-organized by Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), and TB Alliance.
Find a recording of the meeting below:
Investing in R&D
Nearly three years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the critical importance of investing in biomedical R&D to achieve Health for All has become more apparent than ever. New, effective vaccines were developed with unprecedented speed thanks to a level of global investment in R&D and collaboration that matched the urgency of the crisis.
These remarkable efforts also exposed serious gaps in equitable access to health tools, technologies, and services, which have had a negative impact on key areas of development. Despite rapidly developed tests, treatments and vaccines, the pandemic continues to have devastating consequences. This includes millions of deaths, lost wages and employment, hunger, social unrest, and worsened racial, gender and socioeconomic inequalities.
The lesson is clear: scaling up investments in both biomedical innovation and equitable access is necessary to achieve Health for All, which in turn is a driver for sustainable development.
About the Event
This session will focus on poverty-related and neglected tropical diseases (PRNTDs), highlighting the contribution of innovation to SDG3 and how to leverage associated R&D investments and pandemic preparedness and response efforts.
Held at the midpoint of the SDG deadline, this event will provide progress updates on R&D for SDG3. The first panel will discuss how good practices in innovation, such as access principles built into the R&D process, are contributing to the achievement of SDG3. In the second panel, speakers will explore the enabling political, regulatory, and financial environments and solutions needed at the global, regional, and national levels to support sustainable and expanded scientific collaborations across continents and diseases. The session will end with a Q&A with the audience.