UK Health Authorities Launch Joint Initiative to Support Infectious Disease Trials in Africa and Asia
Key Insights
The National Institute for Health and Care Research (search), Foreign Commonwealth Development Office (search), and Wellcome (search) have partnered to support high-quality clinical studies evaluating infectious disease vaccines and therapeutics in Africa, South Asia, and South-East Asia.
The initiative targets high-burden diseases including tuberculosis (search), dengue (search), invasive fungal infections (search), and lower respiratory and bloodstream infections (search) that pose significant health risks in these regions.
This UK-led effort contrasts with recent US policy changes, where the Trump administration cancelled 80% of foreign research and aid projects under USAID (search) and withdrew from the WHO in January 2026.
Health divisions within the UK government and British non-profit organisations have banded together to support infectious disease trials in Africa, South Asia, and South-East Asia amid a shifting global vaccine landscape. The National Institute for Health and Care Research (search) (NIHR), the Foreign Commonwealth Development Office (search) (FCDO), and the UK-based global health charity, Wellcome (search), will co-lead the initiative to help run high-quality clinical studies evaluating marketed vaccines and therapeutics for infectious diseases.
Focus on High-Burden Diseases
Through this scheme the group will place a keen focus on high-burden diseases that pose significant risk to health and life – including bacterial infections like tuberculosis (search) and viral diseases like dengue (search), as well as invasive fungal and lower respiratory and bloodstream infections (search).
According to Lucy Chappell, CEO of the NIHR, investing in quality trials within local communities will allow researchers to "generate the evidence needed to inform policy, improve care and accelerate the uptake of effective vaccines and treatments".
Florian von Groote, head of clinical research at Wellcome (search), emphasized the importance of locally-generated evidence. "Results from controlled trial conditions don't always translate into real-world impact and evidence is strongest when generated locally. This funding call will support researchers in Africa, South Asia and South‑East Asia to lead clinical trials that generate evidence to inform policy and guideline change – improving outcomes for people most affected by infectious diseases," he commented.
Global Funding Landscape
Alongside the UK's efforts, the European Union (EU) has the Global Health EDCTP3 scheme, which has a budget of €1.84bn ($2.13bn) to support clinical trials and health research. In December 2025, the EU allocated €147m in funding to support projects developing new or improved drugs for diseases like tuberculosis (search), HIV (search) and lower respiratory tract infections (search) in sub-Saharan Africa. Then in February 2026, the bloc pledged €225m to develop next-generation flu vaccines.
US Withdrawal from Global Health Initiatives
While certain nations are upping their spend on foreign aid, this trend is not unanimously seen across the high-income nations. Over the past year, the US has been pulling funding in this area to focus on its domestic health agenda. Under the Trump administration, the US – which was once one of the largest financial contributors to health research worldwide – made significant cuts to its offerings by cancelling 80% of its foreign research and aid projects under the USAID (search) scheme.
According to the World Health Organization's (WHO) director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, these actions are having a "serious impact on global health". The US officially left the WHO in January 2026 after a year of departure notice came to an end. Ghebreyesus said that he "deeply regretted" the decision, adding that the consequences on public health extend to the rest of the world.