News
12 March 2013: Policy Cures receives $5m grant to support neglected disease R&D
Policy Cures today announced that it has received a $5m grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to continue its work to improve global health, by supporting increased investment into neglected disease research and development (R&D).
“Policy Cures has conducted the G-FINDER survey supported by the Gates Foundation annually since 2008, providing funders globally with reliable, comprehensive data on the financing of R&D for neglected diseases to inform policy and investment decisions and we’re very pleased to continue our work with the foundation,” said Dr Mary Moran, Executive Director of Policy Cures.
The G-FINDER survey is the most comprehensive report to date on funding of R&D for neglected diseases like malaria, TB, HIV, pneumonia, sleeping sickness and helminth (worm) infections. It covers 31 diseases and 134 product areas for these diseases, including drugs, vaccines, diagnostics, microbicides and vector control products...more
December 2012: Fifth Annual G-FINDER Survey Report Released
A 5-year review of global neglected disease research & development (R&D) funding shows that, despite increased investment of almost half a billion dollars ($443.7 million) between 2007 and 2011, changing investment patterns – especially from hard-pressed governments - may mean this funding is not always working in favour of development of drugs, vaccines and diagnostics for the world’s poor... more
September 2012: New report highlights the benefits of European investment into Global Health Research and Development, both in and outside the European Union
On September 26th, the German not-for-profit organisation, DSW, launched a specially commissioned report from Policy Cures titled, 'Saving Lives and Creating Impact: EU investment in poverty-related and neglected diseases'. The launch included a breakfast debate and was hosted by Maria da Graça Carvalho, a Member of the European Parliament...read more
View the 
PowerPoint presentation in .pptx
View the Powerpoint presentation in .pdf
View press clippings from media coverage of the report
April 2012: New GHTC report finds that the US Government is the largest funder of global health R&D worldwide
A report released by the Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC) and Policy Cures finds that the United States government is the largest funder of global health research and development (R&D) in the world, investing $12.7 billion over the past 10 years in the creation of new vaccines, drugs, diagnostics, and other products for neglected diseases of the developing world. That funding, according to the report, helped lead to the development of more than half of the 45 new health products in the last decade that have been used to save lives around the world...read more
GHTC report launch, sample of press coverage:
BMJ and response to BMJ article
March 2012: BVGH publishes new product developer landscape analysis
BVGH recently published a new report that analyzes drug and vaccine developer engagement in global health. Leveraging data from their Global Health Primer, BVGH explores the extent to which different types of organizations are participating in drug and vaccine development for a broad range of neglected tropical diseases.
December 2011: Fourth annual G-FINDER survey report released
A fresh round of funding cuts from rich nations in the wake of the global financial crisis threaten the development of a new generation of lifesaving medicines and vaccines just as they are on the verge of reaching patients in the developing world. Public funding from the world’s richest nations for research and development (R&D) of new neglected disease products fell by US$125m (down 6%) in 2010, according to new data published in the fourth annual G-FINDER report. Diseases like HIV that rely heavily on public funding have been hit the hardest, with a US$70m cut in HIV R&D funding alone... read more
Read the G-FINDER highlights 2011
G-FINDER highlights 2011 are also available in French, Spanish, and German.
G-FINDER 2011 media release Australia
View the G-FINDER 2011 launch presentation.
What partners are saying about G-FINDER:
"Over the years G-finder has made itself the most relevant tool to acknowledge improvement on innovation. From the perspective of an Institute devoted to Global Health, G-Finder has become a daily tool of reference. Today, however, when economic resources from rich countries are scarce, it becomes not only a reference on innovation, but also a very useful guide for donors and governments to see that the good science to bridge the gap is working, and change is possible."
- Rafael Vilasanjuan, Director, Think Tank, Barcelona Institute for Global Health, IS Global – Barcelona
G-FINDER launch 2011, sample of international press coverage:
G-FINDER launch 2011, sample of Australian press coverage:
August 2011: G-FINDER Public Search Tool now available
The G-FINDER project, conducted by Policy Cures and sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is an annually updated database of global investment into neglected disease R&D. Policy Cures is now hosting the latest version of the G-FINDER Public Search Tool, which provides open access to G-FINDER survey data that is not protected by confidentiality agreements. The Public Search Tool has recently been updated with year 3 and recipient data and search results can be exported into Microsoft Excel format to support flexible analysis of the data.
June 2011: The report, “Staying the Course? Malaria Research and Development in a Time of Economic Uncertainty” released
A new analysis of progress in the global fight against malaria finds a five-fold increase in annual funding for malaria research and development (R&D) in just 16 years—increasing from US$121 million in 1993 to US$612 million in 2009, with a particularly rapid increase since 2004. The funding has generated the strongest pipeline of malaria control and prevention products in history.
The report warns, however, that even a small decline in annual funding could jeopardize this pipeline, derail development of needed products, and paradoxically also increase development costs later... read more
Read the Executive Summary
May 2011: Policy Cures co-authored article selected for inclusion in WHO/PLoS Collection
For the first time the flagship report of the World Health Organization (WHO), known as The World Health Report, will focus on the necessity of research for better health. Decisions regarding healthcare have been and still are being made without a solid grounding in research evidence. In order to reinforce this message that research is critical for meeting health needs and improving outcomes the WHO is collaborating with PLoS Medicine to develop a collection with the title No Health Without Research.
The Policy Cures co-authored article Registering New Drugs for Low Income Countries: The African Challenge was independently selected for inclusion in the WHO/PLoS Collection.
