Drug-resistant strains of bacteria that cause meningitis are on the rise, an expert warns today.
And new drugs are not keeping pace, according to Professor Diederik van de Beek, of the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Writing in The Lancet, the professor calls for trials of new antibiotics and vaccines to combat meningitis to be stepped up.
He warns that because the main impact of meningitis is on poor countries, investment in research is not commercially attractive to pharmaceutical companies.
He writes: "Because drug-development companies are generally not interested in a disease that affects mainly patients in resource-poor countries, preclinical and clinical studies will need to be funded by governments or charitable foundations."
A second study in the journal analyses funding of infectious diseases research in the UK.
The research shows Britain the world’s second largest investor in global health – mainly thanks to the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council, which over four years put £2.6 billion into infectious disease research.
However HIV gets disproportionately large amounts of this funding, according to the researchers at University College, Imperial College, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
The researchers say gastrointestinal infections, antimicrobial resistance and some tropical diseases get particularly low levels of investment.
Researcher into HIV, blood infections and respiratory diseases receives almost half of all the cash in the UK, they say. But just 3.7% – £96 million – was channeled towards drug resistance.
Researcher Professor Rifat Atun, of Imperial College London, UK, said: "There are unacceptable disparities in research funding for infectious diseases.
"Prioritisation of research funding, especially from public sources, must follow transparent criteria to ensure funding is fair and in line with the current and emerging problems faced by the UK and the global community."
The Lancet, November 9 2012
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