Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what plans she has to ensure that medicines and dugs are developed by the pharmaceutical industry for people in low and middle income countries with TB.

The UK Government is a global leader in Research and Development for TB, and one of the largest funders of TB research worldwide. Increasing access to medicines and diagnostics in low income countries is a priority for DFID especially for diseases like TB

DFID is a leading supporter of Product Development Partnerships (PDPs), bringing together the strengths of academia and the pharmaceutical industry, in public-private partnerships to develop new therapies and diagnostics for diseases of poverty. With these partnerships new products can to be developed for public health needs, de-linking the cost of research and development from the cost of the final product.

As part of this effort we are investing £37.5m in the TB Alliance for the development of new drug regimens, particularly where current treatments are failing due to antimicrobial resistance. This includes an additional £7.5m, announced by the Secretary of State for International Development at the UNGA 2018 High Level Meeting on TB.

The UK Government also supports applied health research relevant to TB service delivery, through a number of partnerships with other UK and global funders.