International Development: Diseases of Poverty

Baroness Northover Excerpts

Wednesday 24th July 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Jolly]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much of the £30 million allocated to fund the development of new technologies to impact on diseases of poverty, announced in March 2012, has been awarded to date.

[Baroness Northover]

My Lords, DfID is committed to tackling diseases of poverty through supporting the development of new technologies. Business cases for product development partnerships have been prepared and allocated funding is expected to begin this year, as planned.

[Baroness Jolly]

I thank my noble friend for her response, but how much has been spent in the past five years on biomedical and scientific research into HIV/AIDS and TB, and how much is planned to be spent in the next five years? I have tried to find this information; perhaps she can also tell the House where DfID’s 2013 onward research strategy is to be found.

[Baroness Northover]

DfID has provided approximately £60 million for biomedical and scientific research into HIV/AIDS and £39 million for TB research over the past five years. Spending for the next five years is dependent on the results of the ongoing product development partnerships competition. If my noble friend looks online, she will find DfID’s research strategy priorities and commissioning practices, which were published earlier this year as part of the International Development Committee’s annual accounts inquiry. This information is also in the Library.

[Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead]

My Lords, while a malaria vaccine is the biggest need at this time, it receives virtually no research funding. Currently, 10 times more is spent on a cure for male baldness than on a cure for malaria. Does the Minister agree that the research conducted by pharmaceutical companies focuses, as Bill Gates has said, on what is most lucrative and not on what is most needed? Does she agree with him that it is unlikely that the global poor will ever be profitable enough to attract the interest of the pharmaceutical industry?

[Baroness Northover]

The noble Baroness gets to the nub of the problem. This is why special effort must go into supporting research in these areas because it is, of course, the poorest who suffer from these diseases and cannot pay the prices for the drugs. I think about 1% of any investment went into this area of neglected tropical diseases, which is of course why Gates took it up. At the moment, he funds 49% of the research being taken forward. That is a template for what we are doing and why we are supporting it.

[Lord Chidgey]

My Lords, with DfID’s support, health organisations have been successful in developing a wide range of new health technologies to address the diseases that we are clearly aware of in developing countries, including TB and malaria. Can my noble friend tell us how successful the outcomes have been, and how confident she is in the results, given that countries such as the DRC and Nigeria together account for some 40% of the deaths from malaria, yet they have the most inadequate data of any country?

[Baroness Northover]

DfID’s research investments have helped to develop a range of treatments plus tests across these areas. For example, there is a diagnostic test for TB which is now available in 29 countries and a child-friendly, life-saving anti-malarial is now available in 39 countries—just to give my noble friend an indication of positive outcomes. We are also working very hard at country level to improve the quality of data to strengthen accountability because he is quite right: if we are to measure this properly, it is very important to have such data coming in.

[Baroness O’Neill of Bengarve]

Is the Minister aware that in addition to the money that is going through DfID for these purposes, the Medical Research Council—I declare an interest as the chair of its ethics committee—supports a great deal of research into tropical diseases and has two research centres in Africa?

[Baroness Northover]

Indeed, the United Kingdom is extremely strong in this field. The Wellcome Trust is a major player in this regard and we have the strengths of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, so we contribute significantly in this area. I pay tribute to what the MRC does.

[Baroness Masham of Ilton]

My Lords, is the Minister aware of the organisation here in London called Find and Treat? It has a mobile X-ray unit and goes out to homeless people in hostels and other places to X-ray them for TB. Its X-ray unit is now on its last legs and it desperately needs a new one. Could she ensure that money is available here because TB is just as bad here as it is in third-world countries?

[Baroness Northover]

I remember colleagues being tested in one of those centres locally. I will take this back to the Department of Health and get an answer for the noble Baroness. It is obviously important to address TB here, where it is an increasing problem, as well as in developing countries.

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath]

My Lords, I refer noble Lords to my health interests in the register. Does the noble Baroness think that the introduction of value-based pricing for pharmaceuticals in this country will lead to more research in those areas where at the moment there clearly is not a return for the pharmaceutical companies? They are often called orphan drugs. If they were incentivised it could lead to greater help for these diseases in poorer countries that noble Lords have been discussing.

[Baroness Northover]

I know that the noble Lord is very concerned about value-based pricing in the United Kingdom. We have to take a few steps back in terms of the support that needs to be given for the development of these treatments overseas. This is on a totally different scale. There is, in effect, no market, as the noble Lord’s colleague said, and we need to ensure that there is support for research and development before even the prospect of a market is taken forward.

[Lord Hughes of Woodside]

My Lords, great damage is being done to vaccination programmes by religious fanatics who preach that vaccination is in some way an imperialist plot. Is a lot of money being spent on education to disabuse people of that idea?

[Baroness Northover]

Again, the noble Lord highlights an important area. Polio is on the edge of being eradicated but in Pakistan and northern Nigeria, as the noble Lord will know, religious fanatics have killed some of those trying to roll out the programmes there. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is working extremely hard to tackle this but, obviously, it is a very delicate problem.

[The Countess of Mar]

My Lords, does the noble Baroness agree that prevention is better than cure and that a vital component of this is clean water and good nutrition? What is DfID doing from that point of view?

[Baroness Northover]

DfID fully recognises that malnutrition goes with diseases of poverty and is therefore trying to tackle both poverty and malnutrition. As the noble Countess says, clean water and sanitation are vital in ensuring that children, in particular, manage to survive these diseases.