Gates Foundation renews partnership on global health

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced on Thursday a renewed collaboration with the Beijing municipal government and Tsinghua University to support the Global Health Drug Discovery Institute in its efforts to improve health outcomes worldwide through lifesaving therapies for infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria, which disproportionately affect the world's poorest.

GHDDI, a nonprofit institution established in 2016 as China's first public-private partnership on innovative research, aims to address this disparity in research priorities.

Over the next five years, the foundation will provide $50 million to GHDDI, which will be matched by the Beijing government to bolster the institute's drug discovery capacity.

Tsinghua will also continue to support GHDDI in areas such as building and sharing research platforms, translating research discoveries and developing talent. The commitment was announced after a visit by Bill Gates, co-chair of the foundation, where he delivered a speech titled, "The Power of Innovation to Solve Global Challenges."

Gates, who is on his first visit to China since 2019, said in a speech in Beijing on Thursday morning China has valuable experience in health, agriculture, nutrition and poverty reduction that can be shared, as well as a large number of talents.

Gates said China has made tremendous achievements in reducing poverty and improving public health. He expressed hope China can play a greater role in helping the world, especially African countries, address challenges.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said in a statement low- and middle-income countries bear 90 percent of the global burden of infectious diseases, but only 10 percent of global spending on drug research and development goes toward diseases that disproportionately affect these populations, underscoring a clear case of global health inequality.

GHDDI primarily focuses on developing new drugs for communicable diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria, which have a significant impact on women, children, people living with HIV/AIDS and other vulnerable populations in LMICs.

"GHDDI exemplifies our foundation's commitment to catalyzing innovation for the discovery and translation of transformative solutions to global health and development inequity," said Zheng Zhijie, China country director at the Gates Foundation. "We are excited to see its growth potential within the global health drug innovation ecosystem. With this new funding, we hope GHDDI will continue to drive R&D breakthroughs, ultimately improving the availability and accessibility of drugs for those in need around the world."