The global community fails to achieve the targeted funding for tuberculosis research in 2022.

Global efforts to meet the target of spending US$2 billion on tuberculosis research in 2022 fell significantly short, reaching only half of the intended goal, according to a report by the World Health Organization (WHO). 

The report, published on 7 November as part of the 2023 tuberculosis report, highlights that global TB research expenditure increased from just over US$500 million in 2015 to US$1 billion in 2022. 

However, this falls far below the agreed target of US$2 billion per year set at the first United Nations high-level meeting on TB in 2018. Furthermore, this inadequate funding also hampers progress towards the next research spending goal agreed at the second UN high-level meeting on TB in September, which aims to increase the annual TB research spend to US$5 billion per year by 2027. 

 The report emphasizes the urgency of addressing TB as a major infectious disease, ranking second only to Covid-19 in terms of causing deaths in 2022. 

While TB diagnosis and treatment services have recovered from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the progress made is deemed "insufficient" to meet global targets, as stated by the WHO. 

Tereza Kasaeva, director of WHO's Global Tuberculosis Programme, highlights the importance of collective efforts to combat TB and achieve the vision of ending the epidemic.

 In response to the report, British medical research charity Wellcome emphasized the need for increased funding to support research into accessible and affordable solutions for TB, as well as addressing the growing threat of drug-resistant TB.