Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support the development of new tools and medicines to tackle the global TB epidemic.

The UK Government through FCDO supports research and development for diseases of poverty such as Tuberculosis (TB) through Product Development Partnerships. This includes funding of £56.4 million to the TB Alliance since 2017. TB Alliance has developed novel treatment regimen that are shorter, safer and more effective including for multi-drug resistant strains of TB. Additionally, FCDO support to the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics has helped to develop novel diagnostics for TB including the GenXpert technology to diagnose resistant TB in under 4 hours now in use in over 140 countries globally.