India has been rated among the top five government funders of research and development (R&D) in neglected disease globally with an investment of US$ 32.5m in 2008, and 60 per cent of which was contributed by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR). This was reported in the second Global Funding of Innovation for Neglected Diseases (G-FINDER) survey analyses and reports on 2008 global investment into R&D of new products for neglected diseases.

The survey covers 31 neglected diseases, and collected data from 198 funders in 44 countries. The results show that US$ 2.96 billion was spent on making new products for neglected diseases in 2008. A key finding of the G-FINDER survey was that, for some diseases, traditional donor funding is being replaced by investments from pharmaceutical companies and Innovative Developing Countries (IDCs) such as Brazil, India and South Africa. This trend reflects the growing research strength and pharmaceutical markets of India and Brazil, in particular, as well as high local incidence of diseases such as leprosy and dengue.

The driving force behind the Indian investments is a handful of central government funding agencies: the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

ICMR was the largest Indian funder, providing a total of US$ 19.5m, or 60.1 per cent of total Indian funding. Another US$ 5.1m (15.6%) was invested by DBT, while DST and CSIR contributed US$ 4.0m (12.3%) and US$ 3.8m (11.7%) respectively.

The distribution of Indian funding across diseases reflects a strong emphasis on those endemic to the region. Overall, the diseases receiving the most funding were malaria (US$ 12.5m, 38.5%), diarrhoeal diseases (US$ 4.2m, 12.9%), tuberculosis (US$ 4.0m, 12.4%), leishmaniasis (US$ 3.1m, 9.6%) and leprosy (US$ 2.7m, 8.3%). India contributed 30.6% of global leprosy funding, reflecting remaining pockets of high local endemicity.

The G-FINDER report shows that in 2008 Innovative Developing Countries (IDC`s) like India, Brazil and South Africa and pharmaceutical companies funded nearly 60 per cent of R&D for pneumonia and meningitis; more than half (51%) of leprosy R&D ( Brazil and India have the largest number of new leprosy cases per year in the world), nearly half (46%) of R&D for new dengue products (the Americas , particularly Brazil, along with Asia , have the highest global prevalence of dengue); and around 20 per cent of funding for new treatments and vaccines for diarrhoeal illnesses, TB and malaria (which occur worldwide).

The G-FINDER survey found that two organisations provided nearly 60 per cent of global funding in this area in 2008: the US National Institutes of Health (US$ 1.1bn, 36.5%) and the Gates Foundation ($617m, 20.9%). The US was by far the largest government funder, providing more than two-thirds of global public funding (US$ 1.3bn, 67.2%), followed in distant second place by the European Commission (US$ 129.9m, 6.9%). The UK was third (US$ 103.3m, 5.5%), followed by Brazil ($36.8m, 2%) and India ($32.5m, 1.7%).

The survey was conducted by the George Institute for International Health, Sydney, Australia through a funding from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.