Public healthStagnant U.S. funding for tools against infectious diseases leaves U.S., world at serious risk
As Congress grapples with the White House on how to fund an emergency response to fight Zika virus, a new report warns that overall underfunding for development of lifesaving tools against neglected global diseases is putting the United States and the world at risk, and that emergency funding cannot be allowed to substitute for sustained U.S. investment in research and development (R&D) of global health technologies. A recent study that examined the risk of infectious disease outbreaks projected that large-scale global disease pandemics could cost the global economy more than $60 billion a year, while investing in the interventions needed to protect against these outbreaks, including R&D, would cost only a fraction of that — $4.5 billion — each year.
Even as Congress grapples with the White House on how to fund an emergency response to fight Zika virus, a new report warns that overall underfunding for development of lifesaving tools against neglected global diseases is putting the United States and the world at risk, and that emergency funding cannot be allowed to substitute for sustained U.S. investment in research and development (R&D) of global health technologies.
“Current levels of US global health R&D financing do not match the scale of health challenges the world faces,” said Erin Will Morton, director of the Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC) – twenty-seven nonprofit groups focused on accelerating the creation of new drugs, vaccines, diagnostics, and other health tools. “Political inaction in Washington could undermine two decades of landmark gains in global health and leave the world unprepared and unprotected against emerging health problems like Zika virus infection or antimicrobial resistance.”
The GHTC report, Achieving a bold vision for global health: Policy solutions to advance global health R&D, was released today at a Capitol Hill briefing. In it, GHTC urges Congress and the administration to recognize the U.S. crucial role in accelerating R&D that both saves lives around the world and protects the health of Americans at home. The report urges Congress to provide robust and sustained public financing for U.S. agencies engaged in global health R&D, from the Department of State and Department of Defense to the Agency for International Development, National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control, and Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It also calls for those agencies to then set a percentage of program budgets to be directed to global health R&D and for greater cross-agency coordination to accelerate health product development.
“The Ebola and Zika virus outbreaks have exposed the perils of waiting for an emergency to trigger investment in R&D for neglected diseases. Sustained, predictable funding is not only more cost-effective, it’s a down payment to save lives from the diseases we’ll face tomorrow,” said Morton.
GHTC says that a recent study that examined the risk of infectious disease outbreaks projected that large-scale global disease pandemics could cost the global economy more than $60 billion a year, while investing in the interventions needed to protect against these outbreaks, including R&D, would cost only a fraction of that — $4.5 billion — each year.
