[Ip-health] Financial Times: Funds for TB drugs rise only slightly

[James ARKINSTALL]

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Funds for TB drugs rise only slightly=0D
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By Andrew Jack in London=0D
Published: November 7 2007 02:00 | Last updated: November 7 2007 02:00=0D
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Funding for the development of tuberculosis treatments scarcely rose last=
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year, in spite of political pledges to increase support sharply for=0D
research, according to a study to be issued on Wednesday.=0D
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Support from governments declined in 2006. It was only due to extra funding=
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from private donors and pharmaceutical companies that overall financing=0D
increased marginally from $393m in 2005 to $413m (=E2=82=AC297m, =C2=A3207m=
), says the=0D
study produced by the Treatment Action Group, an Aids think-tank.=0D
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The trend raises concerns about the threat from tuberculosis, which kills=
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1.6m people a year, and increases worries about XDR-TB, its drug-resistant=
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variant, which infects an estimated 26,000 people annually worldwide who=0D
cannot be treated by existing medicines.=0D
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The drop in government funding comes in spite of pledges from politicians=
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including Gordon Brown, now British prime minister, at the World Economic=
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Forum at Davos last year, to endorse a =E2=80=9CGlobal Plan to Stop TB=E2=
=80=9D calling for=0D
$9bn investment in research alone over the coming decade.=0D
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=E2=80=9CGovernments around the world have failed to deliver on promises th=
ey made=0D
only a year ago,=E2=80=9D said Mark Harrington, the executive director of T=
AG,=0D
speaking at an annual conference on TB held for the first time in South=0D
Africa.=0D
The trend appears to confirm fears at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,=
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one of the world=E2=80=99s largest philanthropic bodies, of a =E2=80=9Cdisp=
lacement effect=E2=80=9D=0D
=E2=80=93 that its substantial support to global health provides a pretext =
for=0D
other donors to turn away by claiming that their resources are not=0D
required.=0D
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But Mr Gates has warned that the challenges of global health =E2=80=93 and =
in=0D
particular the high cost of late-stage clinical trials for new medicines=0D
and vaccines =E2=80=93 are too large even for his organisation to support=
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single-handed. The US government=E2=80=99s National Institutes of Health al=
one has=0D
a $29bn annual budget, almost as large as the Gates Foundation=E2=80=99s en=
tire=0D
endowment, but its support for TB research fell, as did that of the Indian=
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authorities.=0D
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There was increased funding from China, Brazil and Russia.=0D
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Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007