The Virtuous Circle: Business and Global Health

Today, a wide range of stakeholders – above all current and prospective investors as well as employees – routinely scrutinize how compa­nies are living up to their Environmental, Social, Cor­porate Governance (ESG) ambitions.

That means pro­viding extensive proof points, and ones that are in­creasingly required to be vetted by third-party groups, as to how their business strategies and operations re­flect and impact real-world issues.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, corporate investment had largely moved away from funding R&D for intractable (the so-called “forgotten” or “ne­glected”) killers like malaria, antimicrobial resistance and tuberculosis (TB).

High regulatory burdens, weak healthcare infrastructure in low-resource settings and low ROI had made these endeavors increasingly un­sustainable.

Out of sight, out of mind?

TB has long been the world’s most lethal infectious disease, killing more than one million people every year. That horrible impact continues today, but has been overshadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that re­duced access to TB diagnosis and treatment in the face of the pandemic actually caused TB deaths to in­crease for the first time in more than a decade (WHO Global Tuberculosis Report 2021.)

While global funding for TB research hit $915 mil­lion in 2020, that’s less than half the annual goal set by UN member states in 2018, according to the Treat­ment Action Group (TAG) and Stop TB Partnership. “Investments from governments, philanthropies and pharmaceutical companies have remained flat since 2018, which contrasts dramatically with their historic mobilization of resources against COVID-19,” TAG noted in presenting the report Tuberculosis Research Funding Trends, 2005-2020.

QIAGEN is among the companies actively explor­ing new models to make sustainable investments in global health such as “cost-plus,” where companies transparently price products for use in low-resource settings at a concessional level just above cost. This model widens access and increases affordability while unlocking potential new markets, at a margin that still ensures companies have the ability to reinvest into fu­ture innovative R&D to expand assays, reach more people, tackle more diseases – and above all, save more lives. Showing that this virtuous circle model works, helps us lead by example and stimulate more pri­vate-sector investment in resource-limited settings.

Keeping everybody in the cycle

Companies have long engaged with governments, health authorities and civil society organizations on ways to improve access to health care. The challenge today, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, is that these companies must become key stakehold­ers in the virtuous circle themselves, leading in the development of the new tools and technologies that are part of our DNA and daily work, and actively working to introduce and scale up their use.

And so, many companies are already engaged in important and synergistic relationships – with highly leverage­able networks that encompass research institutions, pharma, biotech, labs, surveillance centers, public health authorities, and on-the-ground healthcare pro­viders and practitioners.

The ESG goals at QIAGEN are fully integrated into annual business and financial objectives. They are es­sential to ensuring that QIAGEN’s “license to oper­ate” is approved by stakeholders. These investments to resolve social and environmental problems are in­vestments in the future of the company and in ways to improve the world.

As a leader in both Life Sciences and Molecular Di­agnostics, we are deeply committed to widening access to affordable healthcare, ensuring that innovations be­ing developed in academic and pharma labs around the world are translated into products that benefit pa­tients in both industrialized countries and low-re­source regions. No country should be left behind.

Early detection of pandemics

Epidemiologists say the early warnings of the next pandemic will likely come from resource-constrained locations. Strengthening laboratory infrastructure in regions like Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America will underpin a robust surveillance network that should be part of any pandemic preparedness strategy, helping us all see, and respond quickly and efficiently to, whatever threat might emerge next. This is why QIAGEN is working with regional and national refer­ence laboratories in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia to develop diagnostic centers of excellence.

Of course, doing business in resourced-con­strained regions has many challenges, and building a robust diagnostic capability that supports smart clin­ical decision-making can’t happen overnight. These critical developments require taking a long-term view, strong cross-sector partnerships, and patient and pro­active coordination among ALL stakeholders.

But ultimately, such sustainable investment will yield returns that can be measured across many bot­tom lines – most crucially a better quality of life for millions of people around the world, and in line with our vision at QIAGEN of making improvements in life possible.