Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2014 Mar 26;4(3):e004600.
doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2013-004600.

Investments in respiratory infectious disease research 1997-2010: a systematic analysis of UK funding

Michael G Head  1 , Joseph R Fitchett, Mary K Cooke, Fatima B Wurie, Andrew C Hayward, Marc C Lipman, Rifat Atun
Affiliations
Review

Investments in respiratory infectious disease research 1997-2010: a systematic analysis of UK funding

Michael G Head et al. BMJ Open. .

Abstract

Objectives: Respiratory infections are responsible for a large global burden of disease. We assessed the public and philanthropic investments awarded to UK institutions for respiratory infectious disease research to identify areas of underinvestment. We aimed to identify projects and categorise them by pathogen, disease and position along the research and development value chain.

Setting: The UK.

Participants: Institutions that host and carry out infectious disease research.

Primary and secondary outcome measures: The total amount spent and number of studies with a focus on several different respiratory pathogens or diseases, and to correlate these against the global burden of disease; also the total amount spent and number of studies relating to the type of science, the predominant funder in each category and the mean and median award size.

Results: We identified 6165 infectious disease studies with a total investment of £2·6 billion. Respiratory research received £419 million (16.1%) across 1192 (19.3%) studies. The Wellcome Trust provided greatest investment (£135.2 million; 32.3%). Tuberculosis received £155 million (37.1%), influenza £80 million (19.1%) and pneumonia £27.8 million (6.6%). Despite high burden, there was relatively little investment in vaccine-preventable diseases including diphtheria (£0.1 million, 0.03%), measles (£5.0 million, 1.2%) and drug-resistant tuberculosis. There were 802 preclinical studies (67.3%) receiving £273 million (65.2%), while implementation research received £81 million (19.3%) across 274 studies (23%). There were comparatively few phase I-IV trials or product development studies. Global health research received £68.3 million (16.3%). Relative investment was strongly correlated with 2010 disease burden.

Conclusions: The UK predominantly funds preclinical science. Tuberculosis is the most studied respiratory disease. The high global burden of pneumonia-related disease warrants greater investment than it has historically received. Other priority areas include antimicrobial resistance (particularly within tuberculosis), economics and proactive investments for emerging infectious threats.

Keywords: financing; investments; policy; respiratory.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart of study methodology.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Investments on respiratory infection research awarded to the UK over time and by type of science.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Research and Development investment correlated with burden of disease (2010 disability-adjusted life year).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Changes in investment for respiratory infectious diseases between time period 2005–2010 and 1997–2004.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Murray CJL, Vos T, Lozano R, et al. Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for 291 diseases and injuries in 21 regions, 1990–2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010. Lancet 2012;380:2197–223 - PubMed
    1. Walker CLF, Rudan I, Liu L, et al. Global burden of childhood pneumonia and diarrhoea. Lancet 2013;381:1405–16 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Global tuberculosis report 2012 Geneva: World Health Organization, 2012. http://www.who.int/tb/publications/global_report/en/ (accessed 19 Aug 2013)
    1. Blöndal K. Barriers to reaching the targets for tuberculosis control: multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. Bull World Health Organ 2007;85:387–90; discussion 391–4 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Lozano R, Naghavi M, Foreman K, et al. Global and regional mortality from 235 causes of death for 20 age groups in 1990 and 2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010. Lancet 2012;380:2095–128 - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources