Mario Raviglione, director of the WHO's Stop TB Department: “My aim is to reach a consensus right now. If we wait, we may miss the train.”

A grim update on biomedical progress on the ‘neglected diseases’, which account for more than 2.6 million deaths per year, confirms how appropriate the name is. Just 3.8% of the 756 new drugs approved in the United States and Europe from 2000 to 2011 treat neglected diseases.