The Stop TB Partnership and the Confluence for Health Action and Transformation Foundation (“India Health Fund”) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in Geneva. This MOU represents a critical milestone for the tuberculosis (TB) community, as it contributes to accelerating the roll-out of new, people-centered TB innovations in the fight against TB in India and other high burden countries, in support of India’s ambitious commitment to end TB by 2025 and the targets committed to by global leaders at the United Nations High-Level Meeting (UN HLM) on TB.

The MOU between the Stop TB Partnership and the India Health Fund will focus on joint advocacy and knowledge sharing to increase access to healthcare for people affected by TB in India and other high burden countries by modernizing how and where TB care services are provided, sourcing and supporting start-ups and small-medium enterprises from India developing new, people-centered TB innovations, and identifying public and private sector donors and investors to support the Stop TB Partnership’s Accelerator for Impact (a4i) and the India Health Fund.

“Signing this MOU with the India Health Fund is very promising step in the right direction. There is an unbelievable amount of game-changing solutions coming from India, and the Stop TB Partnership strongly believes that we need to do whatever we can to get these innovations to the people who need them, not only in India but to the world. We also foresee this unique opportunity as a tangible way to strengthen our engagement with the private sector in India to jointly develop creative solutions in the vast TB space, which is in dire need of novel approaches to solve complex problems,” said Dr. Lucica Ditiu, Executive Director of the Stop TB Partnership.

Mr. Manoj Kumar, Director, India Health Fund, said, “The vision of a TB-free world by 2030, and India by 2025, is as promising as it is challenging. To achieve this, we simply cannot rely on traditional approaches. We need to think bolder, take risks, and invest in disruptive innovations, that can accelerate TB elimination in a non-linear manner. Solutions that are validated and scaled up in India, have the potential to catalyse elimination of the disease across the world. India Health Fund, which is seeded by the Tata Trusts, aims to aggregate philanthropic capital, and efficiently allocate the pooled funds to the most promising innovations, catalysing their lab-to-market journey. We, at India Health Fund, are delighted to formalise our collaboration with the Stop TB partnership and join hands in this endeavour to leverage the power of innovations in ending TB.”

The India Health Fund is a collaborative initiative, seeded by the Tata Trusts, which endeavors to leverage the power of collective impact to eradicate TB in India by 2025.

The MOU was signed during the Stop TB Partnership’s 31st Board Meeting, which took place from 29-30 January 2019 in Geneva, Switzerland.