Australia is supporting partner countries to build capacity for health systems to anticipate, prevent, detect and control priority disease threats through the Regional Engagement in Surveillance and response to Priority diseases, providing Opportunities for National health system strengthening and Development (RESPOND) partnership with Menzies School of Health Research. 

Australia is strengthening its commitment to the prevention, surveillance and response to infectious diseases across the Indo-Pacific through a strategic partnership with the Doherty Institute. Over the next four years, our partnership will focus on workforce development, policy support, and systems strengthening, and will specifically target laboratory strengthening, genomic surveillance, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), and data for decision making.

NCIRS is harnessing the collective skills of Australian Regional Immunisation Alliance (ARIA) members to support Ministries of Health and other key partners to strengthen immunisation programs across our region. ARIA is comprised of more than 65 experts and over 10 affiliated organisations, and works collaboratively with other agencies, including the WHO, UNICEF, and Gavi.

Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is partnering with the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) to co-deliver the Indo-Pacific Regulatory Strengthening Program (RSP). This program extends the previous TGA-led RSP and covers 22 countries across our region.

Australia is supporting the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance) to advance TB treatments through innovative research and capacity building. TB Alliance is improving outcomes for all TB patients and communities through trialling and developing shorter, simplified and more affordable treatment regimes. To ensure faster uptake and access to new life-saving TB treatments, TB Alliance has created a Manila-based peer-to-peer knowledge hub for countries to learn from other national TB programs for implementation of new guidelines and to support clinical training.

Australia’s investment in PATH is helping to advance diagnostic tools for malaria and neglected tropical diseases through research, development, and clinical evaluation. This investment represents a product development partnership between PATH, Burnet Institute and WEHI. This work supports Australian manufacturers to generate tools needed for the availability of novel malaria rapid diagnostic tests, and assays for malaria relapse risk assessment and treatment.

Australia’s partnership with Medicine for Malaria Venture (MMV) is supporting the research and development of malaria treatment and prevention products. This includes new chemical entities for malaria case management and prevention; new intramuscular chemoprevention candidates to provide coverage longer than three months; and the first-ever malaria relapse prevention candidate free of G6PD (an enzyme that helps red blood cells work correctly) -deficiency liabilities.

Australia is supporting Medicines Development for Global Health (MDGH) to advance the development and delivery of two medicines, moxidectin and dovramilast, for the treatment of some of the world’s most challenging, disfiguring and stigmatising infectious diseases. Scabies, lymphatic filariasis and leprosy type 2 reaction negatively impact the lives of hundreds of millions of people globally and have some of the highest reported prevalence rates in the Indo-Pacific.

Australia has been supporting the Burnet Institute, PNG Institute of Medical Research and PNG National Department of Health to implement the Stronger Surveillance for Vector Borne Pathogens (STRIVE) program in Papua New Guinea since 2018 and is committed to the effective delivery of Phase 2.

Australia is recommitting its support to the PNG Institute of Medical Research (PNGIMR) to continue institutional strengthening via the Strengthening Research and Operational Needs through Good Infrastructure and Modernisation (STRONGIM IMR) program. This investment builds on our partnership dating back to 2019, with a focus on building safe, accessible and productive workplaces; installing IT improvements and upgrades; strengthening the capacity to conduct collaborative and impactful research in emerging fields ; and fortifying administrative and support services.