Poverty-Related and Neglected Diseases (PRNDs) including HIV & AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis account for 13.7 million deaths and the loss of 377 million healthy life years annually worldwide*.  Only 10% of worldwide health research expenditure is used to address these diseases that account for 90 % of the global disease burden.

We need your support to increase decision-makers’ awareness of how the EU can address the disease burden of PRNDs on developing countries through research funding. A recent Policy Cures study commissioned by DSW assesses the impact of EU funding for PRND R&D, highlighting the return on investment for both developing countries and the EU, and the EU’s ongoing role in funding PRND R&D.

The study recommends that the EU should increase its investments in PRND R&D as hundreds of promising products which have the potential to prevent avoidable suffering and death are currently in the pipeline.

Therefore, please indicate your support for the Policy Cures study findings by signing on to our letter and by ‘Liking’ and posting on the campaign’s Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/DSW-Deutsche-Stiftung-Weltbevoelkerung/377300369005434) or twitter (@dsw_worldwide).

About DSW:

DSW (Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevoelkerung) is an international development and advocacy organisation that raises awareness and conducts advocacy dialogue on Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), and on the linkages between population dynamics, health, poverty, environmental protection and sustainable development at national and international levels.

Voice your support for improved global health research funding for Poverty-Related and Neglected Diseases (PRNDs)

Considering that:

A. Poverty-Related and Neglected Diseases (PRNDs) including HIV& AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis account for 13.7 million deaths and the loss of 377 million healthy life years annually worldwide*.

B. Only 10% of worldwide health research expenditure is used to address these diseases that account for 90% of the global disease burden.

C. EU funding for PRND R&D has delivered enormous health, economic and societal benefits for both developing countries and for Europe. It has contributed to the creation of 43 new products that are already improving health and productivity in developing countries while reducing healthcare costs and helping to alleviate poverty.

D. European Union decision-makers in the European Parliament and the European Council have the opportunity to make significant contributions to global health, innovative capacities and research excellence within the coming 7 years.

We therefore urge them to take the following set of actions:
• To strongly support the research necessary to develop affordable and accessible health products for Poverty-Related and Neglected Diseases (PRNDs) by effectively addressing global health challenges.
• To adequately fund Research & Development (R&D) for PRNDs. This includes a fully-funded European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) as proposed by the European Commission and an increased budget for calls for proposals covering all remaining aspects of PRND R&D (i.e. pre-competitive discovery, pre-clinical research and manufacturing and marketing as well as clinical trials outside of Sub-Saharan Africa) in order to complement EDCTP and feed the product development pipeline.
• To facilitate access to EU funding for innovative public-private partnerships such as Product Development Partnerships (PDPs) which work through existing consortia with established internal governance structures and practice flexible, output-oriented research and portfolio management.

* (Updated on 15 October 2012) These 2004 figures also include other infectious diseases that are highly prevalent in the developing world such as pneumonia and diarrhoea.  PRNDs in the strictest sense include HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis and Malaria as well as 17 WHO-defined neglected topical diseases. Together, these diseases affect 1.23 billion people annually (1 billion cases of NTDs, 216 million cases of malaria, 8.8 million cases of TB and 1.5 million new HIV infections) and account for 4 million deaths per year.