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

Published: April 2020

The product-related R&D funding flows for neglected diseases are collected from the Policy Cures Research G-FINDER survey. For 2018, funding data were collected from 262 private, public and philanthropic organizations, on all types of product-related R&D, basic research and platform technology covering 36 neglected diseases (note: the disease names have been reclassified here, see the classifications and standards section for the rationale and approach).

See also:

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

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

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 2007-2018. All funding data has been adjusted for inflation, and is reported in 2018 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 addition, due to a change of scope of the G-FINDER survey for this round of analysis, change in the overall funding and that of particular diseases need to take these modifications into account (see “scope and limitations” below).
  • In 2018, investments in neglected diseases R&D continued to increase for the third consecutive year since 2009. In 2018, investments amounted to around US$ 4 billion, a 10% increase from the previous year (chart A), noting that around 2% of this increase is estimated by the data source to be due to the change in survey scope, participation and reporting.
  • As was the case in 2017, investments in neglected diseases R&D during 2018 remained highly focused on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. Together, investments in R&D for these three diseases account for around 70% of total investments in neglected diseases with US$ 1,451 million for HIV/AIDS, US$ 685 million for tuberculosis, and US$ 663 million for malaria (click on the bar for 2018 on chart A to display data in chart B).
  • R&D investments in multi-disease support continued to increase in 2018 but at a lower rate (25%) compared to 2017 (53%). (click on the “multi-disease support” bar in the disease list on chart B and see chart A). This increase is mainly due to a 22% increase in core funding (+ US$ 66 million) (select “core funding” in chart C and see the increase in chart A).
  • Investments in R&D for several neglected diseases have declined in 2018 compared to 2017 such as dengue (-4%), leishmaniasis (-14%) and leprosy (-18%). On the other hand, some diseases have seen an increase in investments in the same period such as human African trypanosomiasis (+30%) and streptococcus pneumoniae diseases (+18%). The largest % increase in R&D investment was for hepatitis C (+187 %); however, part of this increase is due to the expansion of the scope of the G-FINDER survey to include all hepatitis C genotypes in this year’s analysis.(click on each disease on chart B and see 2018 data on chart A).
  • Three neglected diseases were included for the first time in 2018: snakebite envenoming (US$ 7 million), hepatitis B (US$ 6 million) and mycetoma (US$ 1 million) (chart B).
  • Over the 12 years of investments on R&D for neglected diseases (2007-2018):
    --vaccine R&D continues to occupy the top position in terms of investments in R&D for neglected diseases (US$ 14.64 billion) followed by basic research (US$ 9.09 billion) with an increase of 3% and 12%, respectively, between 2017 and 2018. These two investments categories are followed by medicines R&D (US$ 8.42 billion) which observed an increase in investment for the second year in a row, with 22% increase between 2017 and 2018 alone (click on the bar for medicines research in chart C and note the difference from the previous year by hovering over the columns in chart A).
    -- US$ 1.32 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 chart C to display the diseases concerned in chart B).

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).

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 yet 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.

For this year’s analysis, the scope of the G-FINDER survey was modified as followed:

  • Additions:
    -- Hepatitis B: basic research, medicines, biologics, and diagnostics
    -- Mycetoma: Basic research, medicines, and diagnostics
    -- Snakebite envenoming: Basic research, medicines, biologics, and diagnostics
  • Expansions:
    -- Hepatitis C now includes all virus genotypes (rather than only genotypes 4, 5 & 6), although restrictions to ensure that R&D is targeted at LMICs remain.
    -- The scope for leprosy was expanded to include vaccine development. 
    -- A new category called “biologics” now consolidates funding that was previously included under therapeutic vaccines, drugs, and preventive vaccines

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 disease.
    -- For example, selecting vaccines R&D (chart C) shows that over 60% of total funding for neglected diseases on vaccines R&D is directed to HIV/AIDS (US$ 8.87 billion) (chart B). 
  • 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 visualization or by clicking the same element again.