It won’t be news to readers of The Independent that global health funding has been severely curtailed in recent years.
At Impact Global Health, we focus on global health research and development (R&D), so we’ve been monitoring closely the devastating effects these cuts have are having on the development of lifesaving innovations. All at a time when many of these disease are surging around the globe thanks to other challenges, like climate change, conflict and resistance.
But what readers may not realise is that these R&D cuts can also have detrimental consequences for the health of populations in the high-income countries (HICs) that provide this funding, such as the UK. This is because, as we show in our new research, investment in research and development for global health generates substantial positive “ripple effects” that extend far beyond their original target populations.
We present five new case studies illustrating the ripple effects of global health R&D: innovations originally developed to address global health challenges can also improve health outcomes in donor countries, save taxpayers millions in health system costs, and help save lives worldwide.
All of which makes sense when you think about it. With so many areas of global health being potentially neglected by science in comparison to diseases prevalent in HICs, the potential for new discoveries is huge. It’s why the next blockbuster cancer drug might not, in fact, come from research into cancer itself but from research into a disease you may never have heard of. Because R&D doesn’t happen in siloes but in an ecosystem and if you nurture this ecosystem, lifesaving innovations will flourish including in places you didn’t expect them too.
Let’s stick with cancer, as it illustrates this point perfectly.
Our new research looked at a drug for sleeping sickness; a potentially life-threatening disease which harms the central nervous system and is transmitted by the tsetse fly mainly in Africa. The drug, known as DFMO, was developed as a treatment for sleeping sickness before scientists realised that it could be used to fight cancer too by preventing tumour regrowth. And what’s especially striking is that DFMO can be used to treat relapses of a rare brain cancer (neuroblastoma), which overwhelmingly affects young children.
According to our modelling, more than 1,600 children’s lives would be saved across the UK and EU by 2050 with this drug, whilst averting almost 87,000 years of disability. This health benefit is valued at more than $10 billion (£7.6bn) to society.
Staying with cancer, our new research also looked at human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes many cases of cervical cancer. We found that researchers from low- and middle-income countries discovered that women who had received only one dose of HPV vaccine appeared just as protected against cervical cancer as those who had received three, which was the schedule initially recommended in most HICs. This then prompted the World Health Organisation (WHO) to endorse this one-dose schedule, followed by countries like the UK and Australia.
By simplifying delivery, more people can be protected. In the UK, increased coverage could lead to an estimated 400 additional cervical cancer cases averted by 2070 while generating close to $370 million in programme delivery cost savings.
We have now analysed these positive ripple effects several times and every time the case gets stronger: investment in R&D is not only an act of external assistance but an important lever for donor governments to boost the health of their own populations, reduce costs and strengthen health systems.
This is why policymakers should rethink the role global health plays – not only in saving lives around the world, but also in strengthening domestic health systems and improving health outcomes at home. By sustaining investment in global health R&D over the longer-term and maintaining the conditions needed for innovation to thrive, we can avoid losing potentially life-saving advances in scientific knowledge.
At a time of considerable uncertainty, protecting this investment means continuing to open new doors to discovery, laying the groundwork for the breakthrough innovations that will protect future generations.
Nick Chapman is CEO of the Impact Global Health research and policy organisation
This article has been produced as part of The Independent’s Rethinking Global Aid project
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