Many developing countries still lack the infrastructure to dispense drugs against neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), with up to US$300 million a year needed to address this, according to a report.
The progress report on the London Declaration, a 2012 commitment by a coalition of governments, health organisations and businesses to combat NTDs, found that drug delivery remains a crucial problem. It says that companies supply around US$3.8 billion worth of drugs to treat NTDs every year, but more money is needed to get them to affected areas and administer them correctly. "We have an abundance of cure," said Desmond Swayne, the United Kingdom's international development minister, during the report's launch last week (25 June) in London. "The problem isn't our ability to provide a cure. It's our will to provide the infrastructure that can deliver it to the sufferers."