Tuberculosis Research and Development: 2012 Report on Tuberculosis Research Funding Trends, 2005–2011

INVESTIGACIÓN Y DESARROLLO EN TUBERCULOSIS: Informe 2012 sobre tendencias de financiación de la investigación en Tuberculosis 2005–2011

by Eleonora Jiménez-Levi

November 14, 2012

Now in its seventh year, the Treatment Action Group (TAG) publishes the latest investment data and analysis on the state of global tuberculosis (TB) research and development (R&D) funding. Tuberculosis Research and Development: 2012 Report on Tuberculosis Research Funding Trends: 2005-2011 builds on seven years of investment data to report on annual funding trends and gaps among the leading TB R&D donors. The report analyzes current spending levels across six research areas to assess how they compare to the Stop TB Partnership’s Global Plan to Stop TB 2011–2015 R&D funding targets.

In 2011, 81 donors invested $649.6 million in TB R&D research and development, an 82% increase from the baseline year of 2005, but only a 3% increase over 2010. Of the 81 investors tracked in this report, fourteen are new and six are former TB R&D donors not captured in last year’s report. Among these new and previously participating donors, seven invested $1 million or more in 2011.

Research to accelerate global TB R&D is gravely underfunded. Despite the $19.2 million in additional resources, 2011’s TB R&D investment total represents only 32 percent of the annual $2 billion funding target set by the Global Plan to Stop TB 2011–2015. More donors are needed to fill the annual $1.35 billion funding gap and the TB community at large must renew its commitment to achieve zero TB deaths, zero TB infections, and zero suffering from TB.