To strengthen global efforts to fight tuberculosis, USAID has secured critical external investments to accelerate efforts and expand partnerships with key partner governments including Ethiopia and the Philippines.
In September, USAID announced Support Wide-Scale Interventions to Find TB, a program to provide additional funding to up to two countries. on Thursday, USAID announced that it will partner with the Philippines Department of Health and Ethiopia Ministry of Health.
The Philippines government has committed to providing $11 million in new, annual TB funding through 2027. USAID will provide the Philippines with $9 million in additional FY 2023 funds, subject to Congressional notification. The Ethiopian government has committed to providing $6 million in new, annual TB funding through 2027. USAID will provide Ethiopia with $6 million in additional FY 2023 funds, subject to Congressional notification.
Additionally, author and TB advocate John Green and his family announced they will donate an additional $1 million to the Philippines TB efforts this year, with the potential for the same level of funding annually through 2027. Alongside USAID investments, these external investments, totaling up to $72 million over four years, will be used to roll out TB diagnosis and treatment innovations at the community and primary health care levels.
Additionally, through a donation program announced during the 2023 United Nations General Assembly High-Level Week, USAID committed to provide TB preventive therapy to an initial 1.3 million people in 11 countries – Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Indonesia, the Kyrgyz Republic, Nigeria, the Philippines, Tajikistan, Uganda, Ukraine, and Zimbabwe. USAID also announced that Chemical Process Technologies in South Africa was selected for the technology transfer to produce a more efficient and less expensive active pharmaceutical ingredient in rifapentine, a key TB prevention drug. As the first active pharmaceutical ingredient produced with continuous manufacturing processes in South Africa, the groundbreaking activity will expedite preventive therapy access across the continent.
As the world’s largest bilateral donor leading the fight to end TB, USAID has provided $4.7 billion in assistance to combat TB since 2000, and together with our partners, saved more than 75 million lives. USAID plans to invest $394.5 million in FY 2023 resources, which illustrates the Agency’s steadfast commitment to ending TB globally.