Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment she has made of the efficacy of the research and development pipeline for diagnostics, drugs and vaccines for poverty-related and other neglected diseases.

Historically there has been a lack of investment in the development of diagnostics, drugs and vaccines for poverty-related and other neglected diseases. In the last 15 years increasing investments in research have resulted in over 200 products at various stages of development. A large part of this increase has been due to the establishment of a number of public-private product development partnerships (PDPs) developing a range of technologies for a number of different diseases.

PDPs aim is to accelerate the development of new products and to date they have developed over twenty new products. It has been estimated that there is around a 10% return on investment per annum from medical research. There is insufficient funding available to support the development of all the promising products currently in PDP portfolios and DFID works in partnership with others to encourage greater investment.