About the Authors

Saskia Ricks

Roles Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing – original draft

saskia.ricks12@imperial.ac.uk

Affiliation MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom

Claudia M. Denkinger

Roles Data curation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Center of Infectious Disease, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany, Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics, Geneva, Switzerland

Samuel G. Schumacher

Roles Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics, Geneva, Switzerland

Timothy B. Hallett

Roles Writing – review & editing

Affiliation MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom

Nimalan Arinaminpathy

Roles Conceptualization, Methodology, Supervision, Writing – original draft

Affiliation MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom

Competing Interests

I have read the journal's policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: SR, TBH and NA have declared that no competing interests exist. CMD is on the editorial board of PLOS Medicine. SGS reports working for FIND. FIND is a non-for-profit foundation, whose mission is to find diagnostic solutions to overcome diseases of poverty in LMICs. It works closely with the private and public sectors and receives funding from some of its industry partners. It has organisational firewalls to protect it against any undue influences in its work or the publication of its findings. All industry partnerships are subject to review by an independent Scientific Advisory Committee or another independent review body, based on due diligence, TPPs and public sector requirements. FIND catalyses product development, leads evaluations, takes positions, and accelerates access to tools identified as serving its mission. It provides indirect support to industry (e.g., access to open specimen banks, a clinical trial platform, technical support, expertise, laboratory capacity strengthening in LMICs, etc.) to facilitate the development and use of products in these areas. FIND also supports the evaluation of prioritised assays and the early stages of implementation of WHO-approved (guidance & PQ) assays using donor grants. In order to carry out test validations and evaluations, has product evaluation agreements with several private sector companies for the diseases FIND works in which strictly define its independence and neutrality vis-a-vis the companies whose products get evaluated, and describes roles and responsibilities.