Enhancing global health policy-making with data: a look at G-FINDER and Compass

 At Impact Global Health, we want data to inform policies and drive decisions that can address the inequities in the way biomedical innovations are financed, developed, and distributed around the world. All of our insights are based on a foundation of comprehensive, granular data about R&D funding and the R&D pipeline that we have carefully collated, curated and maintained – the funding data showing global annual investment, and the pipeline data showing the number and status of candidates through the research and development process. We’ve used this data to analyse risks and returns, reveal critical R&D gaps and model future scenarios.  

This blog explores the significance of our two funding data tools – G-FINDER and Compass– and how they can be used together to provide a complete understanding of global health R&D investments.  

Our flagship database, G-FINDER, offers an unparalleled historical view of investment in global health R&D. Nearly two decades of freely available data provides policy-makers and advocates with the means to analyse long term trends, shifts and patterns, and to generate informed policies and recommendations for the R&D community. The data is used by the WHO Global Observatory on Health R&D and is recognised as an indicator for the WHO’s Global Strategy and Plan of Action on Public Health, Innovation, and Intellectual Property.  

It has earned this recognition and trust because of its consistency and accuracy – the result of a carefully defined methodology and scope, and a rigorous data collection and validation process. The annual G-FINDER data collection process involves receiving data from over 300 organisations, including government agencies, pharmaceutical companies and PDPs, who each provide data about all the funding that they disbursed (or received) in the previous financial year, and what sort of research each disbursement funded. Every grant’s description is reviewed by the Impact Global Health team to ensure it fits within the scope of G-FINDER, and submissions are cross-checked to avoid double-counting. Adjustments are made for inflation and values are converted into US dollars so that the data can be compared globally and over time. 

This rigorous approach is important, and is one of the reasons G-FINDER is so highly regarded, but it does come at a cost: time. We have to wait for our participating partners to finalise their year-end accounts before we conduct the survey and then embark on the data validation process. As a result, it isn’t until November or December that the final, comprehensive picture of the preceding year’s funding is able to be published.  

G-FINDER is now complemented by Compass, a regularly updated portal that shows recently announced and future funding data.  

The Compass portal highlights some of the more significant grants that have been awarded since the previous G-FINDER survey, and, for a few focus areas, combines G-FINDER’s historical data with the future funding we expect to see from active grants, given each project’s total funding value and duration. By using public databases and announcements and aggregating and standardising the available data, we can provide an evolving picture of funding through the year, showing the direction in which we’re heading. 

We think funding decisions should be informed by robust data. Compass now provides a valuable up-to-date perspective that complements the historical insights offered by G-FINDER to provide a complete picture of the funding landscape – both historical and forward-looking. Using both of these data sets, we can help answer questions like: 

• Is funding for [disease] at risk, and who could step in to course-correct? 

• Where are the funding gaps that need attention to enable candidates to cross the R&D finish line? 

• Where is there duplicate funding that could be redirected to other areas of the pipeline to ensure more progress is made across the pipeline? 

We know that the value of data is only realised through its utilisation. We invite you to explore our rich data portals and to let us know how we can help you use the data in your analysis and decisions.