NIH disease spending data available

January - February, 2009  |  Volume 8, Issue 1

The NIH has begun a new process for providing detailed funding information for 215 diseases, including major global health topics such as emerging infectious diseases, HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and vector-borne diseases.

The new Research, Condition and Disease Categorization (RCDC) tool was requested by Congress to provide consistent and transparent NIH research funding information. The data are in a table titled, Estimates of Funding for Various Diseases, Conditions, and Research Areas. For the first time, the project listings and the associated dollar amounts will be available.

For the first time, the project listings and the associated dollar amounts will be available.

Links to patents and publications associated with each project also will be available in the next few months.

On a worldwide basis, HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis get 80 percent of the world’s funding devoted to “neglected” diseases, says a review by Australia’s George Institute of Global Health. Pneumonia and diarrhea got less than 6 percent.

The NIH is the largest contributor to research on neglected disease, supplying 42 percent of the $2.5 billion spent worldwide on 30 diseases, the report said.

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