Pluslife Showcases Diagnostic Innovation at WHA78 Side Event: Innovation in Financing and New Technologies to End TB

On May 20, 2025, during the 78th World Health Assembly (WHA78), the Stop TB Partnership and the Health Innovation Exchange co-hosted a high-level side event titled “Innovation in Financing and New Technologies to End TB” at the Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva, Switzerland. The event brought together health ministers from high TB-burden countries, global health leaders, and innovators to discuss the critical role of financing and technology in combating tuberculosis. The session received support from the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (The Global Fund), and Unitaid.

Dr. Lucica Ditiu, Executive Director of the Stop TB Partnership, opened the session by emphasizing the urgency of addressing TB: “We have no time to wait. Every moment lost means lives lost to tuberculosis.”

The event highlighted that despite being preventable and curable, tuberculosis remains one of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases, claiming over a million lives each year. Challenges such as outdated diagnostics, lengthy treatment regimens, and fragmented funding hinder progress. Innovative solutions—including AI-driven diagnostics, portable X-ray tools, rapid molecular testing, and new vaccines—were discussed as means to revolutionize TB detection, prevention, and care.

Professor Songyang Zhou, founder and Chief Scientist of Pluslife, was invited to share insights during the “Innovation in Action” panel. He highlighted the limitations of current centralized diagnostic methods and introduced Pluslife’s RHAM technology, which simplifies molecular testing processes. The MiniDock platform, designed for point-of-care settings, delivers results in 5–25 minutes and supports both sputum and tongue swab samples. This approach is particularly beneficial for individuals unable to produce sputum, such as children, the elderly, and immunocompromised patients.

The adoption of tongue swab sampling extends diagnostic reach to previously underserved groups. In multicenter clinical evaluations, the MiniDock platform achieved a sensitivity of 85.7% and specificity of 100% using tongue swab samples—well above WHO’s performance thresholds for non-sputum near-patient testing platforms.

Professor Songyang Zhou emphasized that real-world impact requires more than diagnostic performance alone—it demands affordability, usability, and compatibility with existing systems. “Diagnostic technologies must be affordable, user-friendly, and compatible with current procurement and delivery frameworks to make a real impact,” he stated. “We considered these factors from the very beginning, not after launching the product.”

Concluding his remarks, Professor Songyang Zhou stressed the importance of cross-sector collaboration: “We cannot solve TB with technology alone. True change requires alignment across diagnostics, policies, financing, and service delivery.”

Pluslife remains committed to advancing equitable access to molecular diagnostics in high-burden settings. With system-oriented, accessibility-first, and collaboration-driven principles, Pluslife continues to innovate diagnostic solutions that support a fair and sustainable global TB response.