IQVIA has embarked upon a deliberate effort to scale up its presence in the global public health arena, building on its extensive experience in providing data-driven solutions to a large variety of clients and stakeholders in the public and private sectors. IQVIA has been actively contributing to global health debates in the context of international gatherings and is shaping regional health agendas through its own convenings, as it is the case of two consecutive Africa-focused health summits in Nairobi and Kigali in 2022 and 2023. In this interview, David Franks, IQVIA’s Vice President of Global Public Health, tell us about his recent visit to New York this past September to attend United Nations (UN) General Assembly-related side events, and gives us his perspective on the road ahead.

The UN hosted three high-level meetings exclusively focused on health this year, which is an unprecedented occurrence in the history of the General Assembly. What drove this emphasis on health and on these themes in particular?

Having these three meetings was as unprecedented as the times we are experiencing in the global public health space. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated how ill-prepared we were to effectively respond to health emergencies: health systems were overwhelmed, our capacity to develop immunization tools in record times was challenged, disruptions in supply chains caused shortages in life-saving commodities, and inequity in the distribution of vaccines generated significant gaps in prevention, even more so in low- and middle-income countries. The impact of COVID-19 on health systems created major setbacks in, for example, in the prevention and control of communicable and non-communicable diseases. As a result, progress achieved in universal health coverage (UHC) was also affected. In that sense, bringing together pandemic prevention, preparedness and response (PPPR) and UHC made sense. Adding tuberculosis to the mix was also appropriate for two reasons. First, it was agreed in 2018, after the first UN high-level meeting on the subject, that a follow-up discussion would be held in 2023 to examine progress against key targets. Second, tuberculosis is the deadliest of all infectious diseases, with over 4,100 people losing their lives to it every day, briefly falling behind COVID-19 during the peak of the pandemic. In addition to these mortality rates and the complexity of the disease itself, the work that the public health community has been doing to manage tuberculosis over the last few decades has provided vital lessons for the containment of COVID-19, particularly when it comes to tracking, tracing, and sanitation practices. This, in my opinion, facilitates seeing tuberculosis as a key component of current and future PPPR mechanisms.

What issues resonated with you the most during your time in New York?

Conversations at the margins of the UN General Assembly were quite diverse and rich, and covered several topics that are of great interest for IQVIA. We also took part in events with partners, particularly one hosted by the Global Fund and (RED) on the central important of strengthening laboratory capacity in Africa—and in low- and middle-income countries in general—to support pandemic preparedness and response and make healthcare systems more resilient.

In this event, and others I had the opportunity to attend, the message that continues to come loud and clear from the international community is that the only way to effectively prepare and respond to emergencies, regardless of their nature, is to have strong institutional capacity on the ground. The more we look into natural disasters, pandemics, and human displacement, the more we realize how critical it is to have the right policy environment, skilled workforce, data systems, health infrastructure, governance arrangements and administrative platforms to tackle these challenges. There is not such a thing as being perfectly prepared for a crisis but, as evidence continues to show, bringing some of these pieces together and proactively building national and regional capacity is the best possible investment we can make for a healthier and safer future. We also need to improve our ability to predict emergencies and, beyond that, to ensure that health systems can endure their impact. A case in point is how climate can affect disease trajectory and health service delivery—something we are currently examining in more detail at IQVIA.

Another central piece in this discussion is the need for more impactful partnerships. This is a term—partnerships—that is often used but whose value cannot be underplayed. No one can resolve any of these challenges on their own. Our collaboration with the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative, the Global Fund, (RED) and, more recently, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) demonstrate that accelerating progress in key areas—in this case, PPPR, health system strengthening, research and development, precision medicine, and Alzheimer’s disease—requires collaboration across sectors. Partnerships are also an ideal vehicle to generate innovation.

And now that bring innovation into the picture, this was the theme of IQVIA’s recent Africa Health Summit in Kigali. Do you feel the was a natural transition—or rather, a natural complementarity—between discussions in New York and the ones that followed in Kigali?

Absolutely. Our agenda in Kigali reflected the global public health community’s aspiration to advance healthcare: to make it more responsive, inclusive and innovative. We were able to take deep dives into different elements that facilitate PPPR, UHC, equity in access, and health system strengthening in Africa, paying particular attention to health financing, the potential of domestic manufacturing of health technologies, the need to build a more robust ecosystem for clinical research, and also the importance of encouraging home-grown innovation. In my view, the summit in Kigali was successful in advancing the thinking and encouraging further action on many themes referenced in the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. Having our summit right after the UN high-level meetings allowed us to bring together critical players to add even more substance to the conversations that were raised in New York, with a clear focus on the future of healthcare in Africa. I hope that connections made in Kigali will also evolve into impactful partnerships in the near future.

Against the backdrop of all these exciting developments, how can IQVIA better support the ambitions and address the challenges of the global public health agenda today and in the future?

As a result of the acute shock of COVID-19 and the many concerns that emerged from this crisis, the international community has been actively addressing—and also proposing mitigating actions—around pressing public health matters and risks. IQVIA has unique capabilities to support the journey of multilateral, corporate and governmental stakeholders in solving many of these challenges. We have extensive experience in optimizing public health interventions across many geographies, with a significant footprint in low- and middle-income countries. Our current public health portfolio, spanning over more than 75 clients in 50 countries, includes world-class and innovative projects in clinical research, PPPR, UHC, digital health, diagnostics and surveillance, health system strengthening, supply chain resilience, and market access, some of which are transforming the healthcare landscape and improving the quality of life of millions of patients.

We are fully aware that the only way to change the direction of travel across a number of protracted issues in this space, in addition to bringing more data and real-world evidence into the picture, is to build differentiated and high-quality solutions that speak to local needs, leverage innovation, capitalize on power of community-driven and patient-centered approaches, and leaves no one behind. I am proud to lead and work alongside a pool of talented and passionate public health professionals who are painstakingly designing such solutions, positioning IQVIA not just a service provider but also as a strategic and thought partner. Such capabilities, combined with the wide breadth of expertise across the company in other healthcare areas, make us willing and able to make a great difference in global health. Being mindful of our achievements and the sheer dimension of the challenges ahead, we look forward to what the future holds.