TREND WATCH: Funding for work on neglected diseases rose by US$150 million in 2014 to $3.37 billion, but investments made to tackle the Ebola epidemic — which started in West Africa that year — were solely responsible for the increase.

Source: G-FINDER/Policy Cures

The figures come from the annual G-FINDER investment report by Policy Cures, a health-policy analysis firm in Sydney, Australia. As in previous years, HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis received the most money for research and development.

Around two-thirds of the funding came from the public sector, with philanthropic and industrial money making up the rest. Removing Ebola investments from these figures, however, reveals that public funding for neglected diseases is at a seven-year low, the report says. On the plus side, industry investment rose by 28% to an all-time high.