R&D funding flows for neglected diseases by disease, year and funding category

Published: July 2025

The product-related R&D funding flows for neglected diseases are collected from the Policy Cures Research G-FINDER survey. For 2023, funding data were collected from private, public and philanthropic organizations, on all types of product-related R&D, basic research and platform technology covering neglected diseases (note: the disease names have been reclassified here, see the classifications and standards section for the rationale and approach).

R&D funding flows for neglected diseases (G-FINDER), by source and type of funding

What you see | Scope and limitations | Data sources | Previous Versions

What you see

The data visualization illustrates funding trends by year, and % differences with the previous year (chart A), by disease (chart B), and type of R&D (chart C) for the period 2007-2023. All funding data has been adjusted for inflation, and is reported in 2022 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 needs to be interpreted cautiously due to the scope restrictions of the survey.
In 2023, investments in neglected diseases R&D amounted to around US$ 4.17 billion.
As was the case in previous years investments in neglected diseases R&D during 2023 remained highly focused on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. Together, investments in R&D for these three diseases account for over 65% of total investments in neglected diseases with US$ 1,269 million for HIV/AIDS, US$ 806 million for tuberculosis, and US$ 691 million for malaria (select the bar for 2023 on chart A to display data in chart B).
Total investments in R&D for several neglected diseases have stabilized in 2023 compared to 2022. Notably there has been a decrease in investments for HIV/AIDS (15%), tuberculosis (9%) and malaria (11%). On the other hand, some diseases have seen an increase in investments in 2022, for example investments for dengue (+35% majority due to increase in funding for medicines R&D). Some disease areas have seen a change that reflects an adjustment back form what it was in 2021 for example tuberculosis and malaria (=9% in 2022, +9% each in 2023) reflecting a stable funding system (click on each disease on chart B and see the bar for change between 2022 and 2023 on chart A).
Diseases seeing persistant increase in investments are Chagas disease, snakebite envenoming, and leprosy (Select disease in chart B and observe funding line in chart A).
Multi-disease support has increased notably from 2015 to present. In 2023 the majority of this funding was invested in core funding to support research organizations (39%) and platform technologies supporting multiple disease areas (35%). (Select 2023 bar in chart A, select multi-disease support on chart B, and refer to chart C).
Over the 16 years of investments on R&D for neglected diseases (2007-2023):
--vaccine R&D continues to occupy the top position in terms of investments in R&D for neglected diseases (US$ 23.6 billion) followed by medicines and basic research (US$ 15 billion each) with a stable spend since 2022 and less than 2% difference between 2022 and 2023 (click on the bar for each category in chart C and compare year to year differences in chart A by hovering over the bars or year points on the trend line).

Scope and limitations of the data source

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).

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.

The COVID-19 pandemic slightly altered the participation in the 2019 G-Finder survey, which meant that some of the reduction in funding in the previous analysis was the result of the reduced reporting rather than an actual drop in funding. In the 2020 report, some of these 2019 figures were reviewed to correct these drops and supersede the numbers presented in previous analysis.

Histoplasmosis (here under Mycoses) and scabies were added to the G-Finder survey scope. This includes R&D for all product categories for both diseases, all basic research for histoplasmosis and basic research that is explicitly targeted at low- and middle-income country (LMIC)-related disease burden for scabies. LMIC-focused basic research on rotavirus and Enterotoxigenic E. coli (both under Diarrhoeal diseases) were also included. And restriction requiring hepatitis C vaccine R&D to be LMIC-specific has been relaxed. This increase in scope accounted for no more than 0.2% of global funding in 2020.

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 (chart A).
Select a disease to filter annual funding data by year and R&D type (chart B).
Select by R&D type to filter annual funding data by year and diseases
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

G-FINDER scope and restrictions

Previous versions