Tuberculosis Research Funding Trends, 2005–2019

For the second year, global funding for tuberculosis (TB) research and development (R&D) surpassed US$900 million—this time, just barely, with US$900,964,590 spent on TB R&D in 2019. An optimist would emphasize that this figure represents the second highest level of funding for TB research ever recorded by Treatment Action Group (TAG) and the Stop TB Partnership. A realist would point out that funding for TB R&D continues to fall more than halfway short of the US$2 billion per year called for in the political declaration of the 2018 United Nations High-Level Meeting on TB (UN HLM).