Edited by Andrés de Francisco and Stephen Matlin (eds.).

2008, 100 pages (English). ISBN 978-2-940401-04-8

Data on research and development (R&D) investments for health provide an indicator of current research priorities, trends, overlaps and gaps. As health is dynamic, it is vital to regularly track these investments to make sure they are used in more efficient, effective and equitable ways.

The Global Forum for Health Research is the only organization that regularly tracks and reports on the world’s R&D investments for health.

This 2007 collection of studies looks behind the global totals, analysing R&D for health expenditures in Argentina, China, Mexico and the United States. It also looks at investments in the research of cancer and 20 historically high-burden infectious diseases.

The rich tapestry of evidence provided reveals key conclusions:

• Investments in research for a range of globally important diseases and conditions remain inadequate – especially with respect to health problems in low- and middle income countries.
• Matching investments with research priorities is of paramount importance for many poor countries affected by the double burden of both noncommunicable and communicable diseases.
• Large investors in high-income countries and governments in low- and middle-income countries pay insufficient attention to local, national and global priority needs when allocating resources.

	Monitoring Financial Flows for Health Research 2007
	Monitoring Financial Flows for Health Research 2006
	Monitoring Financial Flows for Health Research 2005: Behind the Global Numbers
	High-income Country Investors (2005)
	Monitoring Financial Flows for Health Research 2004
	Monitoring Financial Flows for Health Research 2001

Edited by Andrés de Francisco and Stephen Matlin.

2006. 96 pages. ISBN 2-940286-42-6

The landscape of efforts to improve human health in developing countries has changed dramatically in recent years. There are new actors, new resources and funding channels, and new commitments to meet goals in health and development.

With the evolving landscape of new funds and initiatives for health come some important questions about health research. Where do the resources come from and how much is being spent? What is being funded? What priorities are being set, and by whom? Are the resources adequate for meeting current and predicted future health challenges as demographic and epidemiological patterns change across the world? As attention shifts from creating and delivering products and services that treat specific diseases and conditions towards learning more about the determinants of health and developing ways to promote and sustain it, are resources for health research becoming available to meet the needs?

This year's report surveys the changing scene of global financing for health research and provides new estimates of the resources available and the patterns of ill-health for 2003, as well as projections of these patterns in 2030. It also examines the vital roles that the public sector across all countries must play in supporting health research, creating an enabling environment and strengthening research capacities to meet the present and future challenges.

	Monitoring Financial Flows for Health Research 2007
	Monitoring Financial Flows for Health Research 2006
	Monitoring Financial Flows for Health Research 2005: Behind the Global Numbers
	High-income Country Investors (2005)
	Monitoring Financial Flows for Health Research 2004
	Monitoring Financial Flows for Health Research 2001

2006. 90 pages. ISBN 2-940286-39-6

As part of its contribution to closing the ‘10/90 gap’, the Global Forum for Health Research conducts studies of the flows of financial resources for health research and the extent to which these do, or do not, address the health needs of the poor and marginalized.

This new volume of Monitoring Financial Flows for Health Research looks behind the global totals and examines several facets of the overall picture, including health research funding by low- and middle-income country governments and the private sector, as well as the financing of research on some major neglected diseases.

The report highlights the revolution of a much broader and more holistic definition of health and the need for a wider and more multisectoral approach to understanding the determinants of health. This points to the challenge of defining 'health research' – indeed, of re-conceptualizing it as 'research for health' – and of developing tracking systems that identify relevant sources and applications of research resources that lie beyond the health sector.

Contributions
Chapter 1: Building robust, sustainable systems of data collection, by Mary Anne Burke and Andrés de Francisco
Chapter 2: Drug R&D for neglected diseases by public-private partnerships, by Mary Moran and Javier Guzman
Chapter 3: Basic research funds to discover important new drugs, by Donald Light
Chapter 4: Brazilian health technology and innovation, by Reinaldo Guimaraes, José da Rocha Carvalheiro amd Wim Degrave
Chapter 5: Malaria research and development, by Malaria R&D Alliance
Chapter 6: Resource flows for HIV vaccines and microbicides, by HIV Vaccines and Microbicides Resource Tracking Working Group

	Monitoring Financial Flows for Health Research 2007
	Monitoring Financial Flows for Health Research 2006
	Monitoring Financial Flows for Health Research 2005: Behind the Global Numbers
	High-income Country Investors (2005)
	Monitoring Financial Flows for Health Research 2004
	Monitoring Financial Flows for Health Research 2001

2005. 105 pages. PDF only

This report was prepared for the Global Forum for Health Research by Caryn Miller as a contribution to Monitoring Financial Flows for Health Research 2004.

Tracking and monitoring global patterns of spending on health research and development is a relatively new field. It is nonetheless fast becoming an important axis of information in a globalizing world: uncovering who is spending how much, on what, where, why and for whose primary benefit.

High-income Country Investors: Financial Flows for International Health Research looks at the context of resource flows for international health research by high-income country (HIC) investors, and provides data on resource flows from selected investor organizations. Extensive contextual text is provided for official development assistance (ODA) and foundation/charity investors in order to enhance the reader’s understanding of the current participation of these sectors in international health research. Included are the largest HIC investors from the public and not-for-profit sectors providing data for research on the major diseases and conditions affecting low- and middle-income countries. The data provide a reliable picture of resource flows for selected HIC organizations.

	Monitoring Financial Flows for Health Research 2007
	Monitoring Financial Flows for Health Research 2006
	Monitoring Financial Flows for Health Research 2005: Behind the Global Numbers
	High-income Country Investors (2005)
	Monitoring Financial Flows for Health Research 2004
	Monitoring Financial Flows for Health Research 2001

2004. 105 pages. ISBN 2-940286-27-2

This second Global Forum assessment responds to widespread interest on the part of those who fund research, manage and set priorities in different institutions and use our results to try to improve the health of populations around the world. The study presents a new estimate of global spending on health R&D for 2001 but also exposes major gaps in the availability of good quality data from all sectors, disease-specific information and the measure of complex determinants such as poverty, inequity, and gender.

The report sets out to see if growth in funding levels is continuing; whether the share of spending from public, private and not-for-profit sources has changed; whether low-and middle-income countries (LMIC) contributions have increased; how well health problems affecting LMIC and poor populations are being addressed; and the extent to which global health inequities have been reduced.

Somewhere in all of this is the implicit understanding that health research will generate global public goods. At the same time, research can be highly specific or contextualized to the local or regional level. This has consequences for decisions about: who sets priorities and what research is conducted; where the research is done and by whom; who funds it; who will use and benefit from the research products.

	Monitoring Financial Flows for Health Research 2007
	Monitoring Financial Flows for Health Research 2006
	Monitoring Financial Flows for Health Research 2005: Behind the Global Numbers
	High-income Country Investors (2005)
	Monitoring Financial Flows for Health Research 2004
	Monitoring Financial Flows for Health Research 2001

2001. 57 pages- ISBN 2-940286-05-1

Health research is essential to the design and implementation of health interventions, health policies and health service delivery. However, the information on health research financing is fragmented; Monitoring Financial Flows for Health Research aims to provide decision-makers with an overview of currently available information on resource flows into health research.

Total worldwide investment into health research, from the public and the private sectors combined, was calculated at close to US$73.5 billion for 1998, as compared to US$56 billion in 1992 (in current terms). It is estimated that up to one third of this increase is in real terms. In the course of the study, it became evident that important changes were taking place in the health donor community with implications for health research in, and relevant to, developing countries. Public funding (47% of the total funding into health research) grew in the advanced countries as a group and in virtually all the individual countries.

The main objective of the study was less to provide an overall figure than to describe the process for arriving at these estimates and to indicate what to expect from the various data sources and research approaches. In addition, the study gives information on health research funding by developing countries not available before. Finally, it presents a new classification system for R&D; information and proposes a future strategy to continue to track health research financing with the involvement of a larger number of partners.

	Monitoring Financial Flows for Health Research 2007
	Monitoring Financial Flows for Health Research 2006
	Monitoring Financial Flows for Health Research 2005: Behind the Global Numbers
	High-income Country Investors (2005)
	Monitoring Financial Flows for Health Research 2004
	Monitoring Financial Flows for Health Research 2001