FIND (Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics)

FIND (Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics)
Name	Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics
Abbrev	FIND
Formation	2003
Type	Non-profit organization
Headquarters	Geneva, Switzerland
Region served	Global
Leader title	President & CEO

FIND (Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics) is an international non-profit organization based in Geneva that focuses on accelerating the development, evaluation, and delivery of diagnostic tests for poverty-related and neglected diseases. Founded in 2003, the organization works with a broad array of partners across biomedical research, global health policy, clinical laboratories, and philanthropic initiatives to improve disease detection and public health responses. FIND engages with stakeholders from scientific institutions, national ministries, and multilateral agencies to bridge innovation gaps between product development and field implementation.

History

FIND was established in 2003 with support from philanthropic actors and global health institutions following dialogues among leaders from Wellcome Trust, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, World Health Organization, Clinton Foundation, and Médecins Sans Frontières. Early activities involved collaboration with diagnostic developers linked to University of Oxford, Imperial College London, and Karolinska Institutet to address tuberculosis and malaria testing gaps. During the 2000s and 2010s FIND partnered with global procurement and regulatory bodies including Global Fund, UNICEF, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and European Commission initiatives to scale diagnostics for HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis. FIND's programmatic evolution intersected with responses to the 2014 West Africa Ebola epidemic, the 2015–2016 Zika virus epidemic, and the COVID-19 pandemic, prompting expansions in laboratory networks, quality assurance collaborations with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and diagnostic validation efforts tied to European Medicines Agency and national regulatory authorities.

Mission and Objectives

FIND's mission centers on accelerating access to diagnostics for infectious diseases through innovation, evaluation, and delivery. Objectives include supporting product development partnerships with entities such as Roche, Abbott Laboratories, Siemens Healthineers, and Cepheid, strengthening laboratory capacity in partnership with Johns Hopkins University, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and Pasteur Institute, and influencing policy dialogues at forums like World Health Assembly, G20 Summit, and Stop TB Partnership. FIND also aims to facilitate regulatory pathways via engagement with Food and Drug Administration, Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, and regional regulatory harmonization initiatives such as those led by the African Union and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation.

Governance and Funding

FIND is governed by a board comprising leaders drawn from academia, public health agencies, and philanthropic foundations including representatives connected to Harvard University, Stanford University, Rockefeller Foundation, and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Funding streams combine grants and contracts from philanthropic organizations, multilateral agencies, and national development agencies such as United States Agency for International Development, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Government of Japan, and corporate partnerships with diagnostics firms like Thermo Fisher Scientific. FIND's governance mechanisms involve advisory committees with experts from World Health Organization, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, and national public health institutes to ensure alignment with international standards and donor expectations.

Key Programs and Partnerships

FIND operates programs spanning tuberculosis diagnostics, malaria rapid tests, antimicrobial resistance surveillance, hepatitis C testing, and COVID-19 diagnostics, often in collaboration with entities such as Stop TB Partnership, Roll Back Malaria Partnership, UNDP, and UNICEF Supply Division. Technology partnerships include collaborations with molecular diagnostics companies such as Roche Diagnostics, Abbott Molecular, and academic spinouts from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and ETH Zurich. FIND has established evaluation networks with clinical trial sites at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Groote Schuur Hospital, and national reference laboratories coordinated with African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and regional networks like Southern African Development Community. Procurement and market-shaping initiatives have engaged Global Fund, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and market intelligence partners including World Bank analytic units.

Impact and Achievements

FIND has contributed to the validation and uptake of numerous diagnostic tools, influencing adoption by programs in countries supported by Global Fund and PEPFAR. Achievements include advancing rapid diagnostic tests for malaria and hepatitis C, accelerating WHO prequalification processes in collaboration with World Health Organization technical teams, and supporting scale-up of molecular tuberculosis assays manufactured by companies such as Cepheid and Hain Lifescience. FIND-led studies and evaluations have been cited in guidance from World Health Organization guideline committees, informed procurement decisions by UNICEF and Global Fund, and strengthened national laboratory networks in partnership with African Union and PAHO.

Challenges and Criticisms

FIND faces challenges common to global health partnerships, including sustainability of donor funding from entities like Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Wellcome Trust, tensions between rapid deployment and regulatory assurance involving agencies such as Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency, and navigating intellectual property considerations with commercial partners including Roche and Abbott Laboratories. Critics have pointed to potential conflicts of interest when coordinating with industry stakeholders and to equity concerns in access to diagnostics across regions represented by organizations such as BRICS and Least Developed Countries. Operational challenges during large-scale emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted supply chain vulnerabilities linked to manufacturing hubs in China and India and coordination complexities with multilateral mechanisms such as COVAX.

Category:Non-profit organisations based in Switzerland Category:Global health