[Ip-health] MSF report "Cough up for TB" and Press Release of the underfunding for research for TB and other Neglected Diseases by the EC

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

I am posting this on behalf of Alexandra Heumber of MSF Access to
Essential Medicines Campaign .

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M=E9decins Sans Fronti=E8res
Access to Essential Medicines Campaign

Rue Dupr=E9, 94. 1090 Brussels
++32 (0) 2 474 75 09 (Dir off)
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++ 32 (0) 2 474 75 75 (Fax)

Europe failing to respond to global TB threat
MSF report reveals insufficient and badly designed funding for research

Brussels 12 November 2008  New analysis from international medical
humanitarian organisation M=E9decins Sans Fronti=E8res (MSF) shows how the
European Commission is failing to pay its fair share towards
discovering and developing new tuberculosis (TB) vaccines, diagnostics
and treatments.

MSF is calling on the European Commission to increase its funding five
fold into research for medical tools to fight TB in the face of a
global epidemic that claims 1.7 million lives a year.

"Because the tests and drugs we use today aren't anything like
effective enough, MSF teams responding to the epidemic in Africa and
Asia are faced with an almost impossible task," said Dr. Tido von
Schoen-Angerer, Director of MSF's Campaign for Access to Essential
Medicines. "We desperately need new vaccines, drugs and diagnostics
for TB. This will only happen with more research."

This is ever more urgent given TB's rapid spread among people living
with HIV and the rise of drug-resistant strains of the disease which
do not respond to many of the commonly used treatments.

On a global scale, around 1.45 billion euros needs to be spent on TB
research and development (R&D).   MSF estimates that the European
Union's (EU) fair contribution would be 409 million euros a year. But
MSF?s report shows that the European Commission spent a mere 18.7
million euros on TB R&D in 2007.

"Europe's responsibility here is clear," said Dr. von Schoen-Angerer.
"Countries right on Europe's doorstep and even within the European
Union are struggling against resistant strains of the disease.   But
the research budgets remain pitifully low.   Tuberculosis is knocking
loudly on the door, but the European Commission is playing deaf."

And member states are not making up the shortfall. An earlier MSF
analysis found that Germany, the EU's largest economy, was only
contributing 7.5 million euros in 2007. "The European Commission
cannot pass the buck on to the member states and vice versa", said Dr.
von Schoen-Angerer.

MSF's analysis also shows how the European Commission (EC) funding is
badly tailored to suit the needs of developers of vaccines, drugs and
tests. The EC largely ignores new alternatives to the traditional
patent-based research model, such as non-profit partnerships and prize
funds. By eliminating the need for high drug prices to recover
research and development costs, these innovative approaches could
overcome the neglect of research into diseases that do not attract
sufficient investment from industry, such as tuberculosis.

While it focuses on TB, MSF's analysis also looked at other diseases:
in 2007, only 17.1 million euros were spent on research and
development for malaria. Not a single euro went into research for
other neglected tropical diseases such as Leishmaniasis or Chagas,
although these affect millions of people in developing countries.

MSF treats almost 30,000 people with tuberculosis in 39 countries
worldwide.

NOTE TO EDITORS:

The report entitled "Cough up for TB! - The Underfunding of Research
for Tuberculosis and Other Neglected Diseases by the European
Commission" is being released in the run-up to a EC conference on
poverty-related diseases in Brussels on 13 and 14 November 2008.

To download the report, please go to www.msfaccess.org

For more information, please contact:
Stephan Grosse Rueschkamp, M=E9decins Sans Fronti=E8res, +41 79 293 02 70



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Thiru Balasubramaniam
Geneva Representative
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
thiru@keionline.org


Tel: +41 22 791 6727
Mobile: +41 76 508 0997