The Malaria R&D Alliance has published a new report about R&D on malaria. The Malaria R&D Alliance seeks to raise awareness about the important role of malaria R&D in the malaria continuum and to develop a shared responsibility and increase resources for malaria R&D. According to the report, malaria causes more than one million deaths each year and exerts an enormous health and economic toll on developing nations. The estimated cost to Africa alone is more than $12 billion per year in lost gross domestic product (GDP)1. Despite the historic and continuously high disease burden malaria imposes, little has been known about the amount of funding dedicated globally to research and development (R&D) of new tools to prevent and treat malaria.For the report, detailed financial information relating to disbursement of funds for malaria R&D was collected from approximately 80 organizations through an online survey. The presumed largest global funders of malaria R&D, a total of 14, completed the survey; the aggregate response rate from those contributors believed to invest at least one million dollars annually in malaria R&D was 92%.Survey respondents reported that $323 million was invested in malaria R&D in 2004. Investment was heavily concentrated, with 12 survey entities contributing 88% of total funding. The two largest contributors, the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, provided 49% of the total. The public sector, comprised predominantly of government and multilateral funding agencies, provided $181 million of the 2004 investment or 56% of the total. The largest public sector contributor, the US government, invested $129 million in 2004 through four departments and agencies (more than 70% of total public-sector support and almost 40% of the total investment).
