About COVID Treatment QuickStart
The COVID Treatment QuickStart Consortium partners with governments to rapidly introduce and scale access to COVID-19 oral antiviral therapies in vulnerable and high-risk populations presenting with mild to moderate symptoms within five days of symptom onset through a public health test-and-treat model. QuickStart’s top priorities are:
- Ensuring treatments are accessible in all parts of the world;
- Preparing for potential future COVID-19 surges; and
- Building primary healthcare capacity for test-and-treat beyond COVID-19.
The COVID Treatment QuickStart Consortium brings together Duke University, Americares, the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), and COVID Collaborative as implementing partners, with support from the Open Society Foundations, Pfizer and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. Partner countries include Ghana, Kenya, Laos, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Through a donation of 100,000 courses of PAXLOVID™ by Pfizer, QuickStart is working with Ministries of Health to introduce this oral antiviral into partner countries for high-risk individuals with mild to moderate COVID-19. The consortium is combining this introduction with operational research to inform how best to deploy and scale up COVID-19 test-and-treat programs in low-and-middle-income countries. QuickStart will pave the way for quality assured, low-cost generic equivalent drugs, which will be critical to the sustainability of programs in partner countries.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed significant global inequities in access to therapeutics, vaccines, testing, and other medical interventions that could limit the range and impact of the disease. Access to treatment has become an urgent need to tackle alongside persistently low primary vaccination and booster rates in many countries. New antiviral medicines such as PAXLOVID™ and molnupiravir have been available in high-income countries since late 2021 but are not yet widely available in low- and middle-income countries. In addition, scale-up of self-testing for COVID-19 in these settings will enable even more effective approaches.
Partners involved in the COVID Treatment QuickStart Consortium are committed to ensuring a more equitable scale-up of test-and-treat programs with antiviral medicines in low- and middle-income countries, to help address some of the challenges faced in the global scale up of vaccines.
The QuickStart Consortium is implementing test-and-treat programs and operational research in partner countries. QuickStart is working to to:
- Collaborate with Ministries of Health to rapidly introduce and scale access to COVID-19 oral antiviral therapy in vulnerable and high-risk populations presenting with mild to moderate symptoms within 5 days of symptom onset through a public health test and treat model;
- Establish a learning network across countries and implementation sites, developing and disseminating best practices to catalyze and inform additional low- and middle-income country programs and scale-up; and
- Build sustainable, well-financed COVID-19 outpatient test-and-treat programs that are widely available to appropriate populations, with stable access to low-cost, quality-assured generic equivalents.
Blog: Children left behind in HIV response: takeaways from IAS 2023 (27 July 2023)
Newsletter: QuickStart Newsletter, July Edition (11 July 2023)
Newsletter: QuickStart Newsletter, May Edition (23 May 2023)
Newsletter: QuickStart Newsletter, March Edition (20 March 2023)
Press Release: Laos, Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia Have Received Oral Antiviral Treatments for High-Risk Patients Through COVID Treatment Quick Start Consortium (16 March 2023)
Newsletter: QuickStart Newsletter, January Edition (26 January 2023)
Zambia Ministry of Health: Press Briefing (23 December 2022)
Press Release: Zambia Becomes First Country to Receive PAXLOVID™ through COVID Treatment Quick Start Consortium (22 December 2022)
Bloomberg: Clinton-Backed Initiative Ships Covid Drugs to Africa (20 December 2022)
Pan African Visions (US): Zambia becomes first country to receive PAXLOVID™ through COVID Treatment Quick Start Consortium (20 December 2022)
Newsletter: QuickStart Newsletter, November Edition (30 January 2022)
Virtual Briefing: The Covid Treatment QuickStart Consortium Virtual Briefing(7 September 2022)
Press Release: 10-country partnership in Africa and Southeast Asia—to introduce COVID oral antivirals and national test-and-treat programs—announced by new public-private consortium (7 September 2022)
Learning Network Archive:
15 February 2023. This session focused on COVID Testing and High Risk Populations. Access the event summary and recording.
7 December 2022. Diverse speakers and participants collectively acknowledged the necessity of oral antivirals to complement continued access to vaccines for long–term COVID management. Presenters shared their key lessons learned at both the country and regional levels. Access the event summary and recording.
QuickStart Progress
“We are eager to continue the fight against COVID-19 pandemic and make sure it does not become entrenched in our society. The QuickStart Consortium will help us to continue to build and strengthen a resilient healthcare system, quickly find the patients who need treatment, and make sure they get needed medicines—regardless of socio-economic status. Like so many other diseases, COVID-19 won’t go away if you just ignore it,” said Professor Claude Muvunyi, Director General, Rwanda Biomedical Center.
“Having oral antivirals for COVID is something we have always looked forward to, and we are thus excited to be part of an initiative accelerating PAXLOVIDTM for use for COVID management,” “With this new milestone, we expect less admissions and also fewer COVID related deaths leading to a reduced burden on our health system,” said Professor Lloyd B. Mulenga, Director of Infectious Diseases for the Ministry of Health, Zambia.
About the Implementing Partners
About Duke University
Younger than most other prestigious U.S. research universities, Duke University consistently ranks among the very best. Its graduate and professional schools—in business, divinity, engineering, the environment, law, medicine, nursing and public policy—are among the leaders in their fields.
Duke enrolls more than 16,000 students in its undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs, and its world-class faculty is helping to expand the frontiers of knowledge. The university has a strong commitment to applying knowledge in service to society, both near its North Carolina campus and around the world. Situated on nearly 9,000 acres in Durham, North Carolina, Duke is one of the very few schools in the country, or the world, that combines academic and athletic accomplishment at the highest levels. The university is represented in the QuickStart Consortium by its Global Health Innovation Center and the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy.
“We have seen throughout the global COVID-19 response that new life-saving interventions like vaccines and treatments are not quickly reaching those most in need around the world. The QuickStart Consortium is partnering with governments to bring urgently needed medicines to high-risk populations in countries that do not have easy access to such innovations,” said Dr. Krishna Udayakumar, Founding Director of the Duke Global Health Innovation Center.
About Americares
Americares is a health-focused relief and development organization that saves lives and improves health for people affected by poverty or disaster. Each year, Americares reaches 85 countries on average, including the United States, with life-changing health programs, medicine, medical supplies and emergency aid. Americares is one of the world’s leading nonprofit providers of donated medicine and medical supplies. For more information, visit www.americares.org.
“Over the past two and a half years, we have seen the COVID-19 pandemic impact the health of hundreds of millions of people and claim more than six million lives. By expanding access to testing and treatment in low- and middle-income countries, we will be taking a more equitable approach to reduce hospitalizations and severe disease and, ultimately, save lives,” said Christine Squires, President and CEO of Americares, one of the world’s leading nonprofit providers of donated medicine and medical supplies.
About the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI)
The Clinton Health Access Initiative, Inc. (CHAI) is a global health organization committed to saving lives and reducing the burden of disease in low-and middle-income countries. We work with our partners to strengthen the capabilities of governments and the private sector to create and sustain high-quality health systems that can succeed without our assistance. For more information, visit www.clintonhealthaccess.org.
“The program will provide governments with catalytic access to the drugs and technical assistance needed to quickly scale up testing and treatment to reach those who need it most. CHAI and our Quick Start partners are deeply committed to correcting the injustice of essential, lifesaving COVID-19 tools disproportionately available to those lucky enough to live in high-income markets. But this goal cannot be met by Quick Start alone, and we welcome additional partners to join our consortium’s efforts,” said Dr. Neil Buddy Shah, Chief Executive Officer of CHAI.
About the COVID Collaborative
The COVID Collaborative is a national bipartisan assembly of experts, leaders and institutions in health, education and the economy, and associations representing the diversity of the country, united to turn the tide on the pandemic by supporting global, federal, state, and local COVID-19 response efforts. COVID Collaborative includes former FDA commissioners, CDC directors, and U.S. surgeon generals; former U.S. secretaries of Education, Defense, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services; leading public health experts and institutions that span the country; leading business groups and CEOs; major global philanthropies; and associations representing those on the frontlines of public health and education. For more information, visit: www.covidcollaborative.us.
“In addition to identifying the most effective pathways for new product introduction and implementation of test-and-treat, our consortium will establish a learning network – open to all – across countries and sites. By developing and sharing learnings in near-real time we hope to catalyze and inform additional country programs and population-level scale-up,” said Gary Edson, President of COVID Collaborative.
