TB Research in 2020 Reaches Only US$915 Million – Less Than Half of Investment Needed to End TB
A new report finds that global funding for tuberculosis (TB) research totaled US$915 million in 2020 - less than half the goal of US$2 billion set forth by participating country governments at the 2018 United Nations High-Level Meeting on TB. The findings released today by Treatment Action Group (TAG) and the Stop TB Partnership come at a time when worldwide TB deaths rose for the first time in a decade.
The report – Tuberculosis Research Funding Trends, 2005–2020 – presents new data on 2020 funding for TB research and development (R&D) and analyzes trends in investment since 2005. While TB was surpassed by COVID-19 as the world’s deadliest infectious disease last year, the disease still kills around 1.5 million people annually. Despite the toll it takes around the world, TB funding has been flat since 2018, and in 2020 TB received less than 1% of the amount invested in COVID-19 R&D.
Yet, the global response to the novel coronavirus – with unprecedented resources marshaled by public and private sectors to develop vaccines and therapeutics to curb the pandemic – serves as an example of what astonishing achievements are possible with enough political will.
Read the full press release here.
View the report Advocacy Toolkit here.
See the funding trends data dashboard here.
