Annual funding for tuberculosis (TB) research reached $1 billion worldwide for the first time in 2021, a milestone that nonetheless remains far short of what's needed, according to a report today from the Stop TB Partnership and Treatment Action Group (TAG).
The $1 billion committed for research into new drugs, diagnostics, and vaccines for TB in 2021 is roughly three times the amount raised in 2005, when TAG first began tracking TB research and development (R&D) funding. But it's only half the annual amount that countries committed to raising at the United Nations (UN) High-Level Meeting on TB in 2018. The funding is aimed at achieving the UN and World Health Organization (WHO) goal of eliminating TB as a global health threat by 2030.
Stop TB Partnership and TAG also say that after years of severe underinvestment and in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic-related disruptions to TB services, the annual amount needed for TB R&D has risen.
$5 billion a year needed
"We're proud that two decades of activism and scientific advances have led to this unprecedented level of funding for TB research," TAG Executive Director Mark Harrington said in a press release. "But we remain disappointed at the pandemic inequity that holds back progress on TB diagnosis, prevention, and treatment. This number must grow to US$5 billion per year."
That figure comes from a July report by Stop TB Partnership, which estimated that a total of $40 billion ($5 billion per year) would be needed for research into drugs, diagnostics, and vaccines from 2023 to 2030 to eliminate TB as a public health threat. The report estimated that hitting the funding target would help reduce TB cases by 80% and deaths by 90% by 2030, compared with 2015 levels.
The largest individual funder of TB research in 2021 was the US National Institutes of Health, which contributed $354 million, up from $339 million in 2020. Overall, the US government contributed $416 million.
A recent report from the WHO found that, in the wake of pandemic-related disruptions to essential TB services, global TB cases rose in 2021—the first increase seen in nearly two decades.