Supporting Research in Neglected Tropical Diseases: Lessons from AbbVie’s Neglected Diseases Initiative

Abstract

Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) undermine the physical and cognitive health and the economic opportunity of more than one billion people; most of them among the world's poorest and least able to access or advocate for solutions. As Hotez et al commented in a 2009 edition of The Lancet, ""People in the bottom billion are the poorest in the world; they are often subsistence farmers, who essentially live on no money and are stuck in a poverty trap of disease, conflict and no education. One of the most potent reinforcements of the poverty trap is the neglected tropical diseases. Almost everyone in the bottom billion has at least one of these diseases."" Although encouraging progress has been made in recent decades, the prevention, control, elimination and eradication of these diseases remain one of the great public health equity challenges of our generation. And given the impact of NTDs more broadly on nutrition, education, economic productivity, community resilience and health systems capacity, these efforts are also crucial to ending extreme poverty.