Kaiser Network
10/15/2008
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?hint=1&DR_ID=54990

Treatment Action Group Releases Report Documenting TB Funding Shortfall

Funding for global tuberculosis research and development has decelerated in recent years, according to a report released Tuesday by Treatment Action Group, Africa Science News Service reports. The report was released ahead of the 39th Union World Conference on Lung Health, which is scheduled to begin Thursday in Paris.

The report, titled "Funding Trends in TB R&D 2005 -2007: A Preliminary Report," found that investment in TB R&D increased by 6%, or $26 million, between 2006 and 2007, compared with a 16% increase in 2006. When accounting for biomedical inflation and the devalued U.S. dollar, the report indicates that the pace of TB research is slowing. If this trend continues, less than half of the $9 billion recommended by the Global Plan To Stop TB: 2006 - 2015 will be spent on TB R&D by 2015, according to the report. The report recommended increased investment and research into TB diagnostics that can detect the disease faster than available tests and more effective TB treatments and preventive therapy, noting that a lack of investment could lead to increased TB drug resistance.

According to TAG Executive Director Mark Harrington, TB R&D investments "need to increase fivefold to $2 billion" annually to meet Global Plan targets. The report's findings demonstrate that "promises made by world governments and the private sector" to invest in TB R&D "are not being kept," Harrington said, adding that "TB research appears to be stagnating at less than $500 million per year," which is "much too little to fund the science needed to develop the new diagnostics, drugs and vaccines that could make TB a disease of the past." Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, said his organization is "committed to play its part in financing the fight against TB with new treatment and better interventions," adding that "TAG has done a service in highlighting the donors' shortfall."

Gates Foundation Grants $32M to CREATE for HIV/TB Efforts

In related news, the Consortium To Respond Effectively to the AIDS/TB Epidemic on Tuesday announced it has received a $32 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to implement three large-scale clinical trials to improve management of HIV/TB coinfection in Brazil, South Africa and Zambia, Africa Science News Service reports. Richard Chaisson, head of CREATE and director of the Center for TB Research at Johns Hopkins University, said the funding comes at "a pivotal juncture, just as CREATE's research is making significant progress in finding public health interventions that prevent people from becoming sick and dying from TB." Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, who last week received the 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his contribution to the discovery of HIV, said that expanded research efforts to combat TB and HIV/TB are a "key part in the world's struggle against both diseases" (Neondo, Africa Science News Service, 10/14).