Smart Decisions: The G-FINDER 2024 Neglected Disease R&D report
The R&D landscape for neglected diseases shows choices are being made. How do we know if they’re the right ones? A flat line in overall global health R&D funding coupled with an increase in tropical diseases as the planet gets hotter means tough choices are on the agenda. The challenge for funders and policy makers looking to have maximum impact is to understand the context, choose wisely, and find innovative approaches to lower the cost of R&D. Our latest report helps you make smart decisions.
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Tough choices in neglected disease R&D require smart decisions
Advances in malaria, TB, and snakebite products show the impact of well-targeted investments. Declines in funding for pneumonia and meningitis vaccines, for example, reflect a smart strategic shift following successful product launches. But climate change is amplifying the disease burden and driving outbreaks, like dengue, leishmaniasis and diarrhoeal diseases, in new parts of the world. Progress in tackling some diseases, like HIV, is at risk of backsliding despite significant unmet needs. Read the 2024 G-FINDER Neglected Disease R&D report to get to grips with the landscape, and to equip yourself to make smart decisions.
TB R&D sees the single biggest increase in vaccine funding
The share of global vaccine funding going to TB has risen from just 5% of the global total in 2018 to 12% in 2023. Funding is up by $72m, mostly directed to the Phase II clinical trial of the M72 vaccine candidate, which is the most advanced of the 16 different TB vaccine candidates currently in the pipeline. Until trials finish, we can’t yet be sure that M72 will improve on the existing standard of care, or whether it will help eliminate TB. Is it an investment worth making?
Apart from TB, funding for vaccine R&D is falling - and HIV is beset by setbacks
Headlined by a $250m reduction in HIV vaccine funding, we see large declines across malaria, diarrhoeal diseases and especially pneumonia & meningitis. These mostly reflect product launches like the R21 and RTS,S malaria vaccines, although the large drop in HIV vaccine funding results from multiple late-stage clinical trial setbacks.
Climate change is expanding the range of tropical diseases and becoming a question of domestic health security
Climate change provides new habitats for the insects and other vectors that carry diseases, meaning countries much further from the equator are now dealing with threats from neglected tropical diseases. Dengue drug R&D leapt to a second consecutive record high from private sector investment in 2023. This may prove to be too little, too late, as 2024 saw incidence of dengue explode across the globe.
With overall funding stagnant or declining, big bets like M72 require big sacrifices somewhere else
Funding for trachoma R&D fell to zero in 2023 after averaging $2.6m a year in the decade before 2021. It joined yaws and mycetoma on the list of the most neglected of the neglected diseases. With a relatively fixed amount of funding, investments in one area mean others get less. Tough choices in global health need people who will make smart decisions. Read our recommendations for the future.
All sections in this report
Introduction
Start here for Smart Decisions: The 2024 G-FINDER Neglected Disease R&D report
Funding by disease
How much R&D funding for which diseases did we see in 2023?
Neglected disease funders
Who was funding what in 2023 and what does this mean for the future?
Discussion
Key messages from the 2023 global health R&D funding landscape and our recommendations for funders.