Published: April 2017

The product-related R&D funding flows for neglected diseases and select viral haemorrhagic fevers (VHFs) are collected from the Policy Cures Research G-FINDER survey. This collects funding data from over 200 private, public and philanthropic organizations on product-related R&D and basic research and platform technology investments in 39 neglected diseases and select VHFs (note: the disease names have been reclassified here into 42 diseases, see the classifications and standards section for the rationale and approach).

See also:

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

What you see

The data visualization illustrates funding trends by year, and % differences with previous year (top left double chart), disease (right chart), and type of R&D (bottom left chart) for the period 2007–2015 (note: data on VHFs are available from 2014 only for Ebola virus disease and for 2015 for the other select VHFs, see list under scope below). Data can be explored separately for neglected diseases or VHFs by ticking the box with the relevant disease category (top right). The data in the years prior to 2015 are adjusted for inflation and presented in US$ 2015 (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 need to be interpreted cautiously due to the scope restrictions of the survey (outlined below).
• R&D investments on neglected diseases (tick box on the top right to filter) was around US$ 3.0 billion in 2015, showing a decline of 2%-3% yearly since 2012 (US$ 3.3 billion) (Top left).
• In 2015, R&D investments on HIV/AIDS accounted for 33% of total investments in neglected diseases (approximately US$ 1 billion), followed by malaria and tuberculosis at approximately 19% each (US$ 567 and US$ 565 million respectively) (top right).
• Over the nine year period of investments on R&D for neglected diseases:
  -- R&D for vaccine development for neglected diseases received the highest funding (US$ 10.4 billion) followed by basic research (US$ 6.5 billion) and drugs (US$ 5.2 billion) (Bottom left).
  -- US$ 1.8 billion of multi-disease support (click on the fourth bar on the disease list) account for core funding, other non-disease-specific R&D, platform technologies and adjuvants and immunomodulators (bottom left).
  -- US$ 1 billion of unspecified R&D funding account for investments by the industry sector (click on the unspecified R&D category in the bottom left chart to display the diseases concerned).
• R&D investments on Ebola virus disease increased almost three folds (254%) in 2015 (US$ 0.6 billion) compared to 2014 (US$ 0.2 billion). Over the two years, R&D for vaccine development received two thirds of the funding for Ebola (US$ 0.4 billion) followed by medicines (US$ 0.2 billion).

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 (Top left chart).
• Select a disease to filter annual funding data by year and R&D type.
• Select by R&D type to filter annual funding data by year and disease.
  -- For example, selecting medicines shows that almost three quarters (71%) of total funding for neglected diseases on medicines is concentrated in tuberculosis (US$ 1.98 billion) and malaria (US$ 1.85 billion).
• 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.

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).

For some diseases, only R&D funding for developing-country specific serotypes/strains or products are included. For example, genotypes 4, 5, and 6 only are included for Hepatitis C. R&D funding flows for VHFs included Ebola virus disease only since 2014 with the addition of Marburg virus disease, Lassa fever, Rift Valley fever and Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever in 2015.

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.

Data sources

• Policy Cures Research G-FINDER
• G-FINDER public search tool