Tackling global diseases helps both the world’s poorest and Britain too. We have seen from epidemics like Ebola that global diseases know no borders and have the potential to reach our shores.
The International Development Secretary’s recently announced funding for a new £1 billion fund over the next five years for research and development in products for infectious diseases. The Ross Fund will enable the development and testing of vital vaccines, drugs, diagnostics, treatments and other technologies to help combat the world’s most serious diseases in developing countries. In partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, it will target: infectious diseases; diseases of epidemic potential like Ebola; neglected tropical diseases which affect over a billion people globally; and drug resistant infections that pose a substantial and growing threat to global health, like tuberculosis.
The UK is also investing £1.5 billion over the next five years in a new Global Challenges research fund which will ensure UK science takes a leading role in addressing problems faced by developing countries. It will use the expertise of the UK’s world leading research base to strengthen resilience and response to health crises. Funding will support research on challenges like beating antimicrobial resistance and protecting animal and plant health, and emerging viral threats in developing countries.
The Government has also helped fund the work of the Consultative Expert Working Group. In 2011-12 the Department for International Development provided £300,000 (approximately 33 per cent of estimated costs) to support the Working Group’s research, as well as engaging closely with the process. The UK will be represented appropriately at the meeting at the World Health Organisation in March.
By Patrick McLoughlin on January 07, 2016