Neglected Tropical Diseases

Baroness Verma Excerpts

Monday 1st February 2016 Lords Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for International Development (Baroness Verma) (Con)]

My Lords, I, too, start by thanking the noble Lord, Lord Trees, for securing this debate and all noble Lords for their thoughtful contributions. I think that we should be proud of the role that the UK continues to play in its work on neglected tropical diseases, which I shall now refer to as NTDs. Her Majesty’s Government remain strong in their commitment to fighting these diseases, which, as my noble friend Lord Sheikh and the noble Baronesses, Lady Warwick and Lady Hayman, and others, said, affect the poorest of the poor. Every year neglected tropical diseases affect the lives of more than 1 billion people, causing disability, disfigurement, stigma and an estimated 500,000 deaths.

As noble Lords will be aware, at the high-profile London Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases in 2012, we made a commitment to spending an additional £195 million on NTDs, and last year the Chancellor announced the new £1 billion Ross fund, which has been mentioned by all noble Lords. I am pleased to inform the House that that includes support for NTDs—both for research into new drugs and diagnostics and for the implementation of programmes. These commitments are a clear indication of our continuing commitment to improving the lives of the poorest people in the world and to the principle of leaving no one behind that is at the heart of the global sustainable development goals.

I want to make two important points, one on results and the other on resources. I also want to congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Crisp, and the organisation Sightsavers International on their work, along with DfID, on the mapping of trachoma, a disease that results in blindness. As the noble Lord said in his remarks, it was the largest mapping programme in the world and has provided us with valuable information on the geographic distribution of the disease so that we can target resources where they are most needed.

Our support for tackling bilharzia—I may have pronounced that wrongly—which is a disease that often kills young people in young adulthood, is also yielding real results. Our programme here, as noble Lords have said, is delivered through Imperial College. It has already delivered 60 million treatments and aims to deliver a total of 200 million by 2018. Our support for combating elephantiasis, which is managed by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, is also showing results. This is a disease which results in abnormal enlargement of parts of the body, causing pain, severe disability and social stigma. At least 24 million treatments are provided annually through the UK’s support, and 17 of the 73 elephantiasis-endemic countries are now able to stop treatment as they are thought to have achieved elimination. This is a huge achievement and the result of much effort by endemic countries and partners such as DfID.

Later this week, as the noble Lord, Lord Trees, alluded to in his opening remarks, former US President Jimmy Carter, who has led the international campaign for the eradication of guinea worm, will be speaking in the Robing Room. Over recent years the UK has been the second largest donor to the eradication effort after the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In 1986 guinea worm disease affected 3.5 million people. In 2015 there were only 22 cases. Noble Lords will agree that this is an enormous achievement, but many challenges, as has rightly been pointed out, remain before we can consign this disease to history. I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Crisp, and others that we need to remain vigilant and push commitment to ensure that we can consign it to history.

Coming to my point on resources, the UK is the second-largest donor to support the implementation of the NTD programmes. At present, the donor base is far too narrow and the UK actively encourages efforts to raise additional funding from other partners. We are doing our bit, and as my noble friend Lord Sheikh said rightly, the 0.7% commitment demonstrates that the UK is delivering and is committed to what the UK firmly believes in—but we need others to do much more.

I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Trees, that it is important that we recognise the very substantial contribution of the pharmaceutical companies. Most of the medicines used for neglected tropical diseases are donated. Without that vital contribution, our progress would be much slower and much more costly. For the period 2014 to 2020, pharmaceutical companies have pledged drugs valued at $17.8 billion.

Of course, national government leadership in endemic countries is essential and domestic resources must increase if progress on NTDs is to be sustained. In turn, we will continue to show leadership in our health system strengthening work, supporting health worker capacity and access to essential medicines and equipment.

The noble Lord, Lord Stone, asked if I would meet him and others. I am always happy to meet noble Lords with their interested groups. I very much take the view that sharing best practice is a good way of learning how we can better our own strategic and effective delivery. The noble Lord will just have to do what noble Lords do: contact my private office. I am sure that that meeting will be put in place.

I shall now respond to some of the questions that were asked. If I run out of time, as always, I will write to noble Lords. The noble Baroness, Lady Barker, and others asked about the Global Fund replenishment. As one of the largest and longest-standing donors to the Global Fund, we are working hard to ensure a successful replenishment for 2017 to 2019, but we will make our own decision on the contribution in a few months’ time, after we have seen the outcomes of the multilateral aid review that is currently being undertaken by the department.

The noble Lord, Lord Crisp, the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, and a number of other noble Lords asked how we are integrating NTD programmes with other sectors such as water sanitation. It is absolutely right that we look at integration across sectors, with water and sanitation being very important. We are increasingly doing so. We also have to encourage our partners to do the same. I hope that noble Lords who are involved in a number of organisations will take that message out because it is very important that we speak with one voice on these issues.

The noble Lord also asked how we are supporting the development of health systems in developing countries. I am pleased that DfID is a leader in supporting countries to strengthen their health systems. The noble Lord, Lord Collins, and a number of other noble Lords spoke about Ebola, where we saw that the response was slow in the beginning because of the weakness of those health systems. It highlighted to us that we need to make sure that we not only provide the funding but ensure that the capacity on the ground can respond to the issues and challenges that those people face. So it is essential that we ensure that they have the proper capacity and access, and proper medicines and equipment.

The noble Lord, Lord Patel, the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, and others asked whether the Ross fund would be used to support clinical trials. The £1 billion Ross fund will include funding for research, including funding to develop, test and deliver a range of new products, including drugs and vaccines.

The noble Baroness, Lady Warwick, asked what further steps the UK can take in research, including product development partnerships. We support the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative, or DNDi, a product development partnership developing new drugs for a range of NTDs, but we also support product development partnerships for new diagnostics. So it covers a wide range, not just of products with partners but the diagnostics behind them.

My noble friend Lord Sheikh rightly spoke about his experiences. He has vast experience in Africa. I am glad that he reminded us all of our commitment to 0.7%. Working with the Gates Foundation, we have demonstrated our joint ambition to see an end to malaria. My right honourable friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer made that announcement very recently.

All noble Lords said that we need to encourage others to step up. I absolutely agree. These issues and challenges will never be dealt with by individual countries or individual organisations. Part of our undertaking as a department is to make sure that we press at different fora and conferences for others to step up. We worked at the recent G7 meeting, which committed to address NTDs, and we are also working with developing countries to encourage them to commit domestic resources.

I have fast run out of time. I still have a couple of responses, but I will finish by saying that while much progress is being made, millions of people still need treatment and do not get it. The international community sees DfID as a global leader in tackling NTDs, but we cannot and must not be complacent. We need to continue to strive to have a transformational impact on the lives of the most vulnerable people across the world, ensuring, as we deliver our promise of leaving no one behind, that no one is left behind.