Top funding organisations
By Impact Global Health 29 January 2025
Insights
Funding from the US NIH and industry declined, but both remained close to their recent averages; Gates Foundation funding surged; and the DOD’s plummeted.
As in every other year, the top three funders of neglected disease R&D were the US NIH, industry and the Gates Foundation, whose combined funding totalled $3,220m, or 77% of the global total.
Funding from both the NIH and industry declined slightly (by 4 and 8%, respectively), in each case, returning funding to its average over the preceding decade. Funding from the Gates Foundation, on the other hand, rebounded sharply after three straight years of decline, rising by almost a fifth (to $775m) and taking it to its highest level since 2009 and its third-highest total on record.
Funding from most of the other top 12 funders declined, headlined by record low funding from the US DOD (down $29m, -28%), which ceased its funding for HIV altogether and drastically dropped its funding for diarrhoeal diseases, leaving its overall contributions down by half from their 2017 peak. We consider the sharp reduction in DOD vaccine R&D in more detail in the Discussion.
The sole exception to the (mostly slight) general decline was the Indian ICMR. Its funding rose $15m (29%) to a near-record $68m with increased funding across a number of diseases.
Funding from the UK FCDO declined just slightly in 2023 (-3%), to a new record low ($42m), having dropped by $92m from $140m in 2020 and by a smaller amount every year since. The long-term decline in funding from the UK MRC has been slower, but its 2023 cuts were more profound than those of the FCDO; its funding was down almost a quarter (down $8m, -23%) also to a record low ($27m).
Table 5. Top neglected disease R&D funders 2023
