LSW: When was the Quickfire Challenge initiated and what was its purpose?

Dr. Vandita Gupta: In 2019, TB was the world’s deadliest infectious disease, claiming 1.4 million lives – over 4,000 people a day. Growing resistance to the most powerful TB medicines was compounding this challenge, with approximately half a million people developing drug-resistant TB (DR-TB) last year. And this was all in a pre-COVID-19 world.

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented new challenges and concerns for those living with TB. Patients with respiratory impairment and/or lung damage may be more vulnerable to serious complications from COVID-19. Further, the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic is having unintended yet drastic consequences on tuberculosis (TB) services, with lockdowns and limitations on diagnosis, treatment and prevention services expected to increase the annual number of TB cases and deaths over the next five years; at least five years of progress on TB response will be lost.

There is a clear need for community engagement and innovation to solve for the continuity of DR-TB services during the pandemic and after, since health systems would take time to return to efficiency. To ensure continuity of DR-TB care for patients in high-burden countries amidst the lockdown, Johnson & Johnson decided to launch a hackathon-style initiative in May 2020 – the DR-TB Lifeline QuickFire Challenge (QFC). The challenge aimed to identify and support innovative community-based solutions to help patients connect remotely with healthcare providers and access digital and peer-to-peer support from the comfort of their own home.

LSW: Is this a global initiative?

Vandita Gupta: The Johnson & Johnson DR-TB Lifeline Quickfire Challenge is a global initiative aimed at supporting continuity of care for people living with DR-TB in high-burden countries. We were delighted to have received more than 111 unique ideas from innovators and organizations from all over the world, including 21 from India and 18 from the African continent. Two of the five awardees – who received both $50,000 in grant funding and mentorship from J&J experts – are Indian NGOs renowned for their work in TB Care and Management – Doctors For You and ZMQ Global. The other three projects are focused on Kenya, Philippines and Ukraine.

LSW: J&J’s Global Public Health itself has its expertise to provide health care support. What is the objective to seek partners?

Vandita Gupta: For nearly 20 years, both in our laboratories and on the ground in countries impacted by TB and MDR-TB, Johnson & Johnson has been supporting global efforts to end TB, including by discovering and delivering one of the most important new TB medicines in half a century.

But our experience in introducing a new TB medicine shows that medicines alone are not enough to tackle TB. We must strengthen our public health systems, train more health workers on the appropriate management of TB and DR-TB, raise community awareness, and ensure patients are diagnosed in a timely way and then successfully treated. We can’t do this alone. We need various stakeholders to come together to find solutions to combat TB at all levels. This is why we are proud to collaborate with national and local governments, NGOs, and other partners to comprehensively address the challenges presented by TB and DR-TB.

In October 2019, we announced the expansion of our TB program in India, with a focus on helping the country scale up and accelerate its DR-TB efforts through new partnerships with the government and non-governmental organizations. For example:

• We are supporting a new effort with The Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND), in collaboration with RNTCP, to build capacity and establish new TB culture and drug-susceptibility testing facilities in at least seven sites across India.

• We are also undertaking a unique collaboration with the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) South-East Asia office, to support efforts aimed at building capacity of public-sector healthcare providers in seven states to effectively manage TB and DR-TB, in line with India’s new treatment guidelines.

• To raise awareness about TB, we are collaborating with the MTV Staying Alive Foundation to support a first-of-its-kind youth-focused, edutainment media campaign.

LSW: Few words on the strategy adopted by the two recipients of J&J grant-Doctors for You and ZMQ global.

Vandita Gupta: Doctors For You (DFY) has designed a sustainable potential solution that uses telemedicine via WhatsApp and Uber-style Nikshay Kavach delivery services to continue providing critical DR-TB care services to patients remotely, in line with the National Tuberculosis Elimination Program goals.NikshayKavach delivery staff help patients gain access to medicines and testing facilities.

ZMQ Global (India) has developed a Patient’s Active Compliance and Treatment toolkit (PACT). They use Video Observed Therapy (VOT) to empower patients with adherence reporting, connect them with remote health consultations and emergency care, and leverage behaviour change tools to promote treatment adherence.

We are proud to support Doctors For You and ZMQ Global, among other organizations, as they continue to work tirelessly on the ground to help TB patients receive the care and support they need during these challenging times.

LSW: How is the response so far on the activities and what is your forecast for the future?

Vandita Gupta: We are delighted with the overwhelming response to the DR-TB Lifeline Challenge. As mentioned, we received111 ideas from innovators and organizations from all over the world, including 21 from India and 18 from the African continent. We are thrilled to have been able to support five organizations around the world who are working to help ensure that people with TB can be safely treated at home, where possible, during this challenging time. Despite the pandemic, we remain as committed as ever to our goal of driving progress toward a world without TB – and we are continuing our efforts to support programs across the spectrum of TB care.

LSW: The current project is focusing on Tuberculosis. Will J&J be looking at other areas too?

Vandita Gupta: Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JLABS has developed the QuickFire Challenge platform with the aim to empower and enable potential ground-breaking science and healthcare solutions by encouraging students, entrepreneurs, researchers and start-up companies to tackle some of the world's most challenging problems in healthcare. With this goal in mind, the Company has launched a series of QuickFire Challenges.