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Dear Carthi, Eliana and CSEM members, Medicines for Malaria Venture would like to submit its comment to the CSEM’s Civil Society’s COVID-19 Calls to Action. MMV is a non-for-profit partnership committed to developing new, affordable and effective antimalarial medicines for the at-risk populations, especially children and pregnant women, and to promoting equitable access to these antimalarials. As part of our work, we are supporting the response to the COVID-19 pandemic by safeguarding access to antimalarials for the populations affected by malaria, as well as providing assets and expertise to help lessen the impact of COVID-19 though collaborations in assays development, modelling and simulations and by contributing to the collection of data. We fully endorse the CSEM’s Calls to Action and it four areas of focus, which are all crucial for an effective civil society’s response to the pandemic. We would like to make some suggestions to strengthen the focuses 1 (Leave No One Behind) and 3 (Focus on Health Workers). Focus 1 could be more explicit in also referring to the importance of ensuring access to innovative health technologies (diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines), in addition to health services, by under-served populations. We need to make sure that the several new health tools in development do not neglect testing for safety and efficacy for the most vulnerable groups, including the elderly, children and pregnant women. Focus 3 could also refer more explicitly to the need to ensure access to innovative health tools by health workers, as a matter of priority. Only if health workers remain healthy thanks to access to appropriate diagnostics, medicines and, potentially, vaccines, they can continue to be on the frontline in the fight against the pandemic and effectively protect the health of patients. In addition, reference could be made to the gender dimension of the focus on health workers, as most frontline health professionals are women. For easier reference and if useful, we have made these proposed changes in the attachment.We remain committed to sharing the CTA in our advocacy networks and we look forward to the continuation of this important dialogue.
