The Joint Global Health Trials programme is providing £19m in funding for nine new research projects.
This initiative between the Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust and the Department for International Development will fund projects that will focus on HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria, which continue to kill millions of people in Asia and Africa each year.
The large-scale late-stage clinical trials will run for between 18 months and 4.5 years. The problems examined will include reducing the number of people affected by TB in those who are HIV positive and improving malaria diagnosis rates for pregnant women in Indonesia.
The Joint Global Health Trials programme aims to provide robust evidence for global health problems and develop interventions that will improve health for populations in low- and middle-income countries.
Dr Mark Palmer, head of International Strategy at the Medical Research Council (which co-ordinates the Global Health Trials scheme), says: ‘By focusing on clinical trials that take place at the heart of where these diseases have the greatest burden, we're confident that we can significantly improve our understanding of some of the biggest killers in low- and middle-income countries.
‘If we know more about treatments that are effective, and can be implemented safely in the communities that need them most, this scheme will have a tangible impact on the way people are treated for these conditions.’