Challenge

Tuberculosis (TB) remains the leading infectious disease killer, causing 1.5 million deaths and an estimated 6 million new and 3.6 million undiagnosed cases annually. Despite being curable, TB is particularly devastating in developing countries, where it claims 3 lives every minute. TB’s complexity stems from the different levels that require action. These include addressing detection and treatment gaps for both TB and MDR-TB in resource-limited settings, closing funding gaps, developing new diagnostic tools and raising awareness. The real challenge in tackling TB is finding the right holistic approach to have an impact in the most affected communities, mobilizing all stakeholders and implementing new social measures.

How can we design a new strategic partnership between Johnson & Johnson (J&J), the leading Fortune 500 healthcare company with a history of improving access to needed medicine and non-profit FIND, the leading diagnostics innovator platform, to leverage their collective capacities and transform access to a continuum of diagnostics and therapeutic solutions at scale for TB and multidrug-resistant TB?

Journey

GD led the development of a new partnership with FIND and Johnson & Johnson’s newly formed Global Public Health group to leverage joint capabilities by combining science and technology with innovative access models. We identified possible synergies and accelerated the convergence of the partners’ objectives to design a strategy for collaboration.

We outlined opportunities for J&J, FIND and their multiple innovation partners to collaborate on a variety of projects with other partners, including diagnostics developers and national TB control programs, to reduce the toll of more than 3 million people with undiagnosed TB globally and more than 30% of people with diagnosed TB who are not appropriately treated.

GD was instrumental in fast-tracking a first-of-its-kind strategic collaboration between diagnostic and pharmaceutical partners to strengthen the link between effective treatment following diagnosis.

Impact

• Signed an innovative collaborative agreement announced at the TB Union Meeting in South Africa in 2015
• Developed a series of priority projects focused on research and development of molecular diagnostic tests and market access in high-burden countries
• Designed and delivered a communication and advocacy strategy to raise awareness among key stakeholders in global health on the transformational nature of this collaboration, including the announcement of J&J and FIND collaboration at the TB Union Meeting

Additional Resources:

FIND announces innovative partnership with Janssen

J&J / Janssen announces collaboration to transform access to diagnostics and therapeutic solutions for TB and MDR-TB