April 25 is World Malaria Day and this year the specially assigned motto is “Accelerating the fight against malaria for a more equitable world”. The following chart takes a look at the latest figures by Policy Cures Research on research and development funding not only for malaria, but also several other major diseases as well as their related estimated number of deaths in 2022.
Malaria is considered one of the neglected diseases and was included in the report, according to Policy Cures Research, because it ticks all three of the following criteria: 1) it is a disease that disproportionately affects people in low- and middle-income countries 2) there is a need for new products (i.e. there is no existing product OR improved or additional products are needed) 3) there is market failure (i.e. there is insufficient commercial market to attract R&D by private industry).
As this chart shows, malaria received $604 million in 2022. This is a drop of more than 10 percent since 2021 (-$73 million), and was the lowest level of funding in the past 15 years. According to the report, funding for malaria vaccines fell for a fifth consecutive year, to a record low of $106 million. Meanwhile, drugs received the largest share of funding ($235 million), although the segment also saw a drop of 12 percent (-$33 million).
Yet, other diseases received even less attention. Hepatitis B, which killed over a million people in 2022 received just 30 million in funding worldwide that year.
