Published: February 2019

The product-related R&D funding flows for neglected diseases are collected from the Policy Cures Research G-FINDER survey. For 2017, funding data were collected from 197 private, public and philanthropic organizations, on all types of product-related R&D and basic research and platform technology covering 33 neglected diseases (note: the disease names have been reclassified here, see the classifications and standards section for the rationale and approach).

See also:

What you see | Scope and limitations | Data sources | Current version

What you see

The data visualization illustrates funding trends by year, and % differences with previous year (top left, double chart), disease (right chart), and type of R&D (bottom left chart) for the period 2007–2017. All funding data has been adjusted for inflation, and is reported in 2017 US dollars (US$) (adjustment performed by the data source).

Points to note:

• The G-FINDER survey data underestimate the total R&D investments for these diseases as reporting is incomplete and need to be interpreted cautiously due to the scope restrictions of the survey (outlined below).
• In 2017, investments in neglected diseases R&D reached the highest level for the decade. 2016 and 2017 together show the first two consecutive years of increase since 2008/2009. In 2017, investments amounted to around US$ 3.6 billion, a 7% increase since 2016 (top left, double chart).
• As was the case in 2016, investments in neglected diseases R&D during 2017 remained highly focused on HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. Together, investments in R&D for these three diseases account for more than 70% of total investments in neglected diseases with US$ 1,257 million for HIV/AIDS, US$ 624 million for malaria, and US$ 615 million for tuberculosis (Click on the bar for 2017 on the top left double chart to display data in the right chart).
• R&D investments in multi-disease support increased by 51% in 2017 compared to 2016. (Click on the fourth bar of the disease list on the right chart and see the top left double chart). This jump is mainly due to a significant increase in core funding (see bottom left chart).
• Investments in R&D for several diseases such as dengue (US$ 81 million; -28%) and Chagas disease (US$ 18 million; -28%) have declined in 2017. Investments in R&D for acute hepatitis C have suffered one of the sharpest decline (US$ 15 million; -47%). On the other hand, some neglected diseases such as schistosomiasis (US$ 24 million; +29%) and shigellosis (US$ 32 million; +33%) have received increased R&D investment. The largest % increase in R&D investment was for cryptococcal meningitis (US$ 11 million; +87%) (Click on each disease on the right chart and see 2017 data on the top left double chart).
• Over the 11 years shown:
  -- vaccine R&D continues to occupy the top position in terms of investments in R&D for neglected diseases (US$ 13.17 billion) followed by basic research (US$ 8.07 billion) . However, between 2016 and 2017, both observed a decline in the amount of funding (a 1% and 4% decline respectively). These two investments categories are followed by medicines R&D (US$ 7.13 billion) which observed a 16% increase between 2016 and 2017 (Click on the bar for medicines research in the bottom left chart and note the % difference from the previous year by hovering over the 2017 column in the top left double chart).
  -- US$ 1.21 billion of unspecified R&D funding accounts for investments that, while directed to specific diseases, have not been allocated to a specific R&D funding category(click on the unspecified R&D category in the bottom left chart to display the diseases concerned in the right hand chart).

Scope and limitations

The data must be interpreted cautiously because of the specific scope restrictions of the G-FINDER survey (see link below for detail). The scope of the G-FINDER survey is determined by applying the following three criteria for neglected diseases. (R&D investments which do not meet these criteria are excluded.)

• The disease disproportionately affects people in developing countries.
• There is a need for new products (i.e. there is either no existing product, or improved or additional products are needed).
• There is market failure in developing these new products (i.e. there is an insufficient commercial market to attract R&D by private industry).

For some diseases, only R&D funding for developing-country specific serotypes/strains or products are included. For example, genotypes 4, 5, and 6 only are included for Hepatitis C.

In addition, the funding data from industry is presented in an aggregated form for confidentiality. This means that funding levels by disease and R&D category substantially underestimate the actual investments in these diseases within the scope of G-FINDER described above.

Note that this latest data visualization does not contain data for R&D funding for Ebola and other viral haemorrhagic fevers (contained in the visualization published by the Observatory in April 2017) as the data for these have not been updated by Policy Cures Research. A separate report focusing on emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) identified in the WHO R&D Blueprint will address these; its data will be visualized and provided in the Observatory once available.

Note: For this set of analysis, developing-country-specific research on therapeutic vaccines for HIV/AIDS was included with vaccines R&D as a restricted category, reflecting emerging research into broadly neutralizing anti-HIV antibodies (bNAbs) and their potential use in developing countries.

To explore the data further:

• Select a single year (by clicking on a time point on the trend line or on the year-specific bar) to filter annual funding data by disease and R&D type and to compare year to year estimates and differences (top left, double chart).
• Select a disease to filter annual funding data by year and R&D type (right chart).
• Select by R&D type to filter annual funding data by year and disease.
  -- For example, selecting vaccines R&D (bottom left chart) shows that over 60% of total funding for neglected diseases on vaccines R&D is directed to HIV/AIDS (US$ 7.95 billion) (right chart).
• Hover the cursor on a bar in a graphic to see more information in a popup window (e.g. year, investment amount, % difference [with previous year], disease, R&D type).
• Undo a selection by clicking ‘undo’ or ‘reset’ near the bottom of the page or by clicking the same element again.

Data sources

• Policy Cures Research G-FINDER
• G-FINDER public search tool