New executive director of the Global Fund outlines ambitious agenda

Mark Dybul yesterday took charge as executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, promising to accelerate the organization’s efforts to defeat these three highly infectious diseases by working closely with partners.

Dr Dybul, formerly a co-director of the Global Health Law Program at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University and named to the new post last fall (The Pharma Letter November 16, 2012), may be best known for playing a key role in creating, and later leading, PEPFAR - the largest global health initiative ever undertaken to address a single disease, which is widely credited with helping reverse the trend of AIDS, reducing new infection in many countries.

Dr Dybul outlined an ambitious and energetic agenda for the coming year. The Global Fund will launch a new funding model in February, allowing it to invest more strategically, engage implementers and partners more effectively and achieve greater impact in a way that improves the health and the lives of women and men and children all over the world.