This year’s G-FINDER Report, providing a survey of global investment into research and development (R&D) of new products for neglected diseases, gives some key information for the year 2012:

• Overall, R&D investment in neglected diseases increased by 3.2% compared with 2011, but much of this increase came from US public funding (up $86.3m, 6.4%), mostly from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), masking a major drop in funding from 11 other high-income countries (down $52.6m, -12.4%) in 2012.

• Funding for kinetoplastid diseases (Chagas disease, leishmaniasis, sleeping sickness) remained relatively steady compared with 2011.

Specifically for kinetoplastid diseases the report gives the following (see p. 42):

‘Global funding for kinetoplastid R&D in 2012 was $136.3m ($148.1m [in unadjusted 2012 US$]). Funding within the kinetoplastid family was split more evenly between the three diseases [Chagas disease, leishmaniasis, sleeping sickness] than it was in 2011, with each receiving about a quarter of total funding. Most funding continued to be directed to leishmaniasis ($38.7m, 28.4%), followed by sleeping sickness ($36.8m, 27.0%) and Chagas’ disease ($31.7m, 23.2%).’

Read the full report / Read the highlights of the 2013 report