Underfunded and Urgent: Why Canada Must Step Up in TB Research
Global efforts to combat tuberculosis (TB) are falling short, with funding levels failing to meet the urgency of the crisis and threatening to derail progress toward ending the epidemic.
The recently launched 2024 report on Tuberculosis Research Funding Trends by Treatment Action Group (TAG) highlights both progress and urgent gaps in global TB research funding. Despite a record-breaking $1.2 billion invested in 2023, this is only 24% of the $5 billion annual funding target set at the 2023 UN High-Level Meeting on TB. The shortfall continues to impede advancements in diagnostics, drugs, and vaccines necessary to end the TB epidemic by 2030.
Most public donors, including Canada, failed to meet the fair share target of allocating 0.15% of national R&D expenditures to TB research. Only South Africa and India achieved this benchmark. Key donors, including the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, accounted for over 50% of all contributions, emphasizing the over-reliance on a limited number of ‘megafunders’. On the positive side, philanthropic support grew by 47%, with significant investments in vaccine development.
Canada, through Global Affairs Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, contributed approximately $14.6 million to TB R&D in 2023. While we commend these investments, this represents just 28% of its fair share target, highlighting the need for stronger leadership to uphold Canada’s historically significant role in global health. Meeting our fair share commitment is essential to accelerating the fight against TB and saving millions of lives around the world.
TB remains the leading infectious disease killer in the world, with 10 million people falling ill and over 1 million people dying of the disease each year. Insufficient funding hampers the development and delivery of the critical tools needed to fight TB, including vaccines, treatments, and diagnostics, leaving millions vulnerable to the disease.
The recent report by Results Canada and Results UK on Investing in innovation and equitable access to end the tuberculosis epidemic highlights the urgent need for global investment in research coupled with concerted efforts to ensure that new tools reach the populations that need them.
Stop TB Canada will continue to urge the Canadian government to honour its commitments, close the funding gap, and ensure equitable access to innovations across TB prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. With substantially expanded financing, the universal implementation of existing tools, and the creation of new ones, we can end the TB epidemic.