The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has announced a partnership with IQVIA, (RED), Abbott Fund, and the Rockefeller Foundation to invest $54 million in a catalytic fund for pandemic preparedness.

The Laboratory Systems Integration Fund aims to advance laboratory systems’ readiness and capability ratings in more than a dozen low- and middle-income countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America to detect and respond to potential local health threats before they become global pandemics. According to the Global Fund, fully equipped laboratories and trained lab technicians can diagnose priority diseases such as HIV and TB and can rapidly mobilize diagnostic resources to respond to pathogenic threats.

The IQVIA-(RED) impact partnership will invest $5 million in the fund, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will match every dollar from the partnership to the Global Fund. The fund already has received pledges from the Rockefeller Foundation ($15 million) as well as the Abbott Fund ($5 million). The Global Fund intends to invest an additional $29 million.

“If there’s one thing that we have learned even more clearly from COVID-19, it is that rapid diagnosis is the first line of defense against any infectious disease outbreak,” said Global Fund executive director Peter Sands. “At a time when global health leaders are working toward a pandemic treaty, this new catalytic fund demonstrates the will to fight today’s infectious diseases and prepare for tomorrow’s pandemics.” 

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