In the past, European countries contributed a great deal to TB research and development, leading to groundbreaking discoveries like the mycobacterial cause of the disease and the 100-year-old BCG vaccine. However, since the 2018 United Nations High Level Meeting on TB, high hopes for European investments have not been realized. European Union (EU) member states have failed to contribute their fair share of funding toward the $2 billion needed globally each year to make TB elimination possible within a generation.

In this brief, TAG outlines the pathway the EU can take to scale up support for TB R&D, and advance the many European-sponsored TB vaccine candidates currently in the development pipeline. Outlining EU-wide and country-specific funding targets, and examples of successful initiatives thus far, this proposal offers ambitious and realistic guidelines for creating a TB-free future.