TB R&D

Global funding for tuberculosis (TB) research climbed to a previously unreported high of USD $772 million in 2017. This marks the second year in a row that funding for TB research and development (R&D) exceeded $700 million.

The world spent $726 million on tuberculosis (TB) research in 2016, marking the first time annual spending has exceeded $700 million since TAG began tracking funding in 2005. Although this figure is $105 million above 2015 levels, it remains woefully inadequate when judged against the innovation gaps holding back the TB response and the ambitious global goals to end the TB epidemic by 2030.

Tuberculosis (TB) killed 1.8 million people in 2015, making it the most deadly infectious disease worldwide, but funding for research into better TB prevention, diagnosis, and treatment dropped by US$53.4 million, according to Treatment Action Group’s 2016 Report on Tuberculosis Research Funding Trends, 2005–2015: No Time to Lose.

Working in tuberculosis (TB) research has long meant laboring with too little and waiting for what comes too late. In recent years, an emergent optimism has crept into TB research, but too often the individuals and institutions that comprise the TB research field find their good ideas and energy put on hold by insufficient funding.