Research does not reflect global disease burden

Less than 10% of the world's health research budget is spent on conditions that account for 90% of global disease, a report from an international research foundation claims this week. The Global Forum for Health Research has called for a reallocation of the estimated $56bn (£35bn) spent annually on health research by the public and private sectors to improve global health.

“The world's two biggest killer diseases—pneumonia and diarrhoeal disease—illustrate the extreme mismatch between the disease burden and the funding of research and development,” said Professor Adetokunbo Lucas, the forum's chairman. “Although these two killers …