A stronger and safer United Kingdom through global health R&D investment: Foreword by Professor David Lalloo and Professor Liam Smeeth

2025 has been a challenging year for global health – with significant cuts announced to critical funding internationally and continued uncertainty about future investment. Already, many projects have been forced to pause or stop, causing direct negative impact on the people and communities which are most in need. Many of those communities are already the most vulnerable due to longstanding economic or political challenges and they were the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Against the wider backdrop of increasing impacts of climate change and geopolitical conflict, the need for investment in scientific research and the development of innovative new products, vaccines, diagnostics and treatments has never been greater, along with the need for strengthened health systems, robust evidence-informed policies and community engagement. 

Those of us who work at the forefront of UK R&D have seen first-hand the progress that has been made in addressing global health problems over the last two decades.  By working with affected communities, there have been notable successes in a number of neglected disease areas, including, for example, the transformation in the prevention and management of HIV and hard-won gains in controlling malaria.

This new report from Impact Global Health clearly demonstrates the impact that UK public funding has had in terms of lives saved and improved, as well as cases of neglected disease prevented.  And the numbers are staggering.

By 2040, the £3 billion of global health R&D funding invested by the UK since 1994 will have saved 1.43 million lives, averted 99 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and prevented 183 million cases of neglected disease.

Behind each one of the numbers is a person, a family, a community whose lives have been saved or changed for the better. We believe that as one of the richest nations in the world, the UK has an ethical responsibility to take a lead on breakthroughs in neglected diseases.

 But the case for continued support and investment is much stronger than just ethical responsibility; there are widespread and measurable economic and social benefits not only in the countries where these diseases occur but also felt in the UK from this global health R&D.

The report highlights a global societal return of £1.39 trillion, with nearly £7.7 billion additional economic activity in the UK alone, catalysing more than £4.8 billion private sector investment in R&D and creating nearly 4,000 UK jobs.

And the benefits do not stop there. COVID-19, and the West African Ebola epidemic demonstrated that infections don’t recognise geographic borders. Nobody is safe from future pandemics until everybody has access to effective diagnostics, drugs and treatments and robust health systems and effective community engagement to help deliver them to the people who need them.

The UK’s own global health security depends on continued investment in this early pipeline of global health R&D.

 In an age where there are multiple calls on government and other funder budgets, global health R&D could be seen, mistakenly, as an easy target. But the impact of R&D funding in the UK and across the globe cannot be underestimated. The report clearly shows how this funding has already significantly improved health outcomes and positively impacted individual lives and wider society.

 We must keep this momentum to realise these benefits into the future.  There is a very real risk that funding cuts now or in the future will reduce the impact of what has already been achieved and will lose the opportunity to develop new products, save even more lives and create even more sustained economic benefit. Any reduction in investment could rapidly unravel the substantial progress made to date, leaving future advances in life-saving interventions in jeopardy.

Now is the time for bold action to protect critical investment in this area. Every pound of funding lost will negatively impact the UK economy, make the UK more vulnerable to future pandemics, and, most importantly, expose the most vulnerable communities around the world to greater health threats.

Professor David Lalloo

Vice-Chancellor

Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

Professor Liam Smeeth

Director

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine