Research and development for tuberculosis

Global strategic direction

Tuberculosis (TB) is a communicable disease that is a major cause of ill health and one of the leading causes of death worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that every year, at least 10 million people fall ill with TB, and more than one million lose their lives to this preventable and curable disease.

To drive down TB deaths and suffering, the World Health Assembly endorsed the “WHO End TB Strategy” in 2014. This aims to attain a 90% reduction in TB related mortality and 80% reduction in disease incidence by 2030.

“Intensified research and innovation” is the third pillar of the End TB Strategy. This includes research and development of affordable and accessible rapid point-of-care tests for TB infection and TB disease; shorter, safer and more effective treatments for TB infection, drug-susceptible TB and drug-resistant TB; a TB vaccine that is effective before and after exposure; and innovative strategies to address broader determinants of TB, such as poverty, undernutrition, HIV infection, smoking and diabetes.

In 2020, Member States adopted “Global strategy for TB research and innovation”: Its goals are to increase public spending on TB research, ensuring that the benefits of TB research are shared equitably and commitment to create policy and regulatory frameworks favourable to advancing partnerships and collaborations needed to expedite research.

The political declaration at the second UN high-level meeting on TB, held in 2023, included an ambitious global funding target for TB research agreed by all UN Member States. The target is to mobilize $5 billion per year by 2027. Although funding has been slowly increasing, the latest published data show that only US$1 billion was available in 2021.