News & Insights

The following statement focuses on the 150th World Health Organization Executive Board meeting agenda item 9: “Global strategy for tuberculosis research and innovation.” Progress toward tuberculosis milestones and targets has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020 alone, deaths from tuberculosis increased from 1.4 million to 1.5 million globally, far fewer people were diagnosed and treated for tuberculosis, and spending on essential tuberculosis services and research failed to increase in line with existing and new needs. This poses a risk to the achievement of the targets set in the political declaration of treating 40 million people diagnosed with tuberculosis and providing tuberculosis preventive treatment to 30 million people by 2022. To reverse the impact of the pandemic, avert preventable deaths, and put the world on track to end tuberculosis, essential tuberculosis services must be restored as a matter of urgency, and more domestic and international resources need to be mobilized. It is also critical that the development and uptake of new technologies is part of that investment. The Treatment Action Group reported tuberculosis research and development investment of US$915 million in 2020, far below the 2018 UN high-level meeting target of at least US$2 billion per year. Annual funding for tuberculosis research needs to more than double to reach the global target.Therefore, GHTC calls on the World Health Organization (WHO) and member states to:Substantially increase investments in tuberculosis research to drive technological breakthroughs and the rapid uptake of innovations. Member states must mobilize domestic resources, foster public–private partnerships, and incentivize the responsible and well-regulated engagement of pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology firms, and other health product developers to expand the pipeline of new and equitably accessible tuberculosis tools, especially true point-of-care molecular diagnostics, new antibiotic regimens, and vaccines. While the specific call for member states to meet their tuberculosis research funding fair share targets is most welcome, much work remains to make these targets a reality.Address the unmet needs in translational research for tuberculosis. The pandemic has demonstrated that rapid sharing of data helps accelerate research and discovery. Some countries have already made strides by using common protocols coordinated through the Regional Prospective Observational Research for Tuberculosis (RePORT) network, and contributed data and biospecimens to the platform. Member states should double down and push for additional coordination and collaboration through these platforms. Address the drug-resistant tuberculosis crisis and close persistent gaps in diagnosis and treatment access and care. WHO and member states should work to ensure that the process for including new technologies to fight drug-resistant tuberculosis on the essential medicines and diagnostic lists and other guidelines is streamlined. WHO must continue to support the implementation of the global strategy for tuberculosis, including through the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases to provide crucial capacity-building and implementation research support to countries.