Devasena Gnanashanmugam, M.D., V.P. Medical Affairs, discusses Cepheid’s Global Access Program

Speaker 1: Well, next up we're going to learn how Cepheid's Global Access Program is tackling diseases like TB with the aim to enable molecular diagnostic testing everywhere. And we are joined by their Medical Affairs VP, Devasena Gnanashanmugam. Good to have you, Devasena. Thank you so much for joining us.

Devasena Gnanashanmugam: Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1: Love to find out a little bit more about your background. And I know you've come from the pediatric side of the healthcare lanes and also about being an infectious disease doctor, which is quite a specialty.

Devasena Gnanashanmugam: Yes, yes. You're right. I trained as a pediatric infectious diseases specialist, and fairly shortly after I completed my training, I went into the research field. Prior to joining Cepheid, I was with the National Institutes of Health in the United States. And so that's really where my passion for TB and HIV and specifically addressing the needs of children kind of grew more as an extension of my training.

Speaker 1: And why did you join Cepheid? What drew you to the company?

Devasena Gnanashanmugam: As I mentioned, I was working at the NIH and I learned a lot about Cepheid and its product to diagnose TB. So, I had a fair amount of knowledge about TB and what Cepheid was doing in the space prior to coming to the company. So it was all of the work that they'd been doing and focusing on diagnostics and improving diagnostics for low- and middle-income countries. That's been my passion for a long time. I went to medical school in India, so I saw firsthand what a devastating toll the disease has on the population at large.

Speaker 1: And in terms of the business's Global Access Program, what exactly is it and why and when did it actually start?

Devasena Gnanashanmugam: So it's been around since 2010 and it was really started to enable more people to have access to our products. So it's a program that is really focused on equity and enabling populations that don't have as many resources to gain access to these products that are so life-saving. It's been a fundamental part of Cepheid's global health work.

Speaker 1: And just in terms of the goals, how do you do the work? Who is eligible for it?

Devasena Gnanashanmugam: So almost any country that is considered to be a high burden country and that is funded and has some partial funding from the Global Fund is a member and can be eligible for the program. And to be fair, it doesn't have a very strict rule around who is eligible and who isn't. For example, you could be a customer who's more interested in our HIV products, and you would still be considered somebody who could be eligible for the program. So it's also not even restricted to TB.

Speaker 1: And how does the work look like today in the TB space under the Global Access Program?

Devasena Gnanashanmugam: So it's again, very wide. We have many members in the program, and the point I think that is central is that the program is really focused on getting those people who need our products the most, figuring out their challenges and roadblocks, and helping to manage them from the customer level all the way to the ministry level.

Speaker 1: And a lot of people talk about prioritizing low and middle-income countries, so how's the business thinking about solving TB challenges in collaboration with other disease priorities in those low and middle income countries?

Devasena Gnanashanmugam: So it's really about that collaboration. For example, as I mentioned, we also have HIV products. So it's really trying to figure out the fact that we have a platform that will allow for diagnosis of multiple diseases all in one instrument. Understanding where people are coming to get care? Because as you can imagine, if you're a person who's not well, you're not necessarily thinking in your own head, well, I know I need to go to this TB program or this HIV program. You want to go to a place where you can get comprehensive care. And that's really where we are trying to do a lot more work understanding and enabling people to get diagnoses of multiple diseases in one location.

Speaker 1: I think it'd be great to share with us maybe a couple of examples of the global access program in action that you think is making a real impact on global public health goals.

Devasena Gnanashanmugam: Sure. So as people know very well, we have the TB program that's been around for many years now, and that is a program that has allowed for TB diagnostic access to so many regions of the world. In addition to that, where we've also worked with some researchers who have done work evaluating our product for early infant diagnosis such as the Baby Cure program in South Africa. That has enabled many, many infants to be identified with HIV infection very early on.

Another example of our work is with the Ebola response. We had a product that enabled those people who were at risk for Ebola when the outbreak was quite expensive in DRC and other countries. Cepheid has really tried to focus on the needs of low—and middle-income countries as and when they have been occurring, and that's been integral to the Global Access Program.

Speaker 1: And what makes you optimistic or are you optimistic about the global fight against TB to achieve elimination by 2030? And obviously, the global pandemic has thrown things off course just a little bit, hasn't it?

Devasena Gnanashanmugam: Indeed it has. I am optimistic. What we're seeing now are so many more players in the field and so many people that are having innovative ideas that are really moving the field forward. In the last few years we've seen real acceleration of drugs being available to people, more diagnostics that are being available to people. So what I see is a real shift from where the field was 15, 20 years ago. So if we continue at this pace, I think there's a lot more that we're going to accomplish.

Speaker 1: Devasena, an absolute pleasure to have you here on Union Live. Thank you so much for your time.

Devasena Gnanashanmugam: Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1:

Thank you.