EID20_Report_Web_1_FINAL.pdf

R&D funding for infectious diseases rises fourfold since 2014

The Covid-19 pandemic is already inspiring some planning for the next pandemic, and a new report from global health think tank Policy Cures Research outlines the state of R&D funding for emerging infectious diseases. Here's more: 

• Overall trends: In 2018, R&D funding for infectious diseases was almost $890 million, a 14% increase since 2017, and almost five times the amount in 2014. 
• Disease-specific trends: Funding for Ebola more than tripled between 2014 and 2015, in the wake of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. As the outbreak waned, funding for the disease also dropped — by $125 million in 2016 and 2017. Similarly, there was an increase in funding for Zika during the outbreak, from $6 million in 2015 to $243 million two years later. 
• Other trends: Vaccine research received most of the funding between 2014-2018, while diagnostics received fewer than 4% of funds. The U.S. government and U.S.-based pharma companies accounted for nearly three-quarters of all funders.