Bill Gates, co-chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, spoke at an event in Austin, Texas … [+]
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will partner with the Beijing city government and donate $50 million over the next five years to fight infectious disease, the foundation said today.
China’s elite Tsinghua University will also join with the foundation and municipal government though the non-profit Global Health Drug Discovery Institute to improve therapies for infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria.
“Low- and middle-income countries bear 90% of the global burden of infectious diseases, but only 10% of global spending on drug research and development goes toward diseases that disproportionately affect these populations, underscoring a clear case of global health inequality,” the foundation said.
GHDDI was founded in 2016 as China’s first public-private partnership on innovative research between the Beijing Municipal Government, Tsinghua University, and the Gates Foundation.
Over the next five years, the Gates Foundation will provide $50 million to GHDDI, which will be matched by the Beijing Municipal Government, in order to bolster the institute’s drug discovery capacity, the institute said. Tsinghua University will also continue to support the institute in areas such as building and sharing research platforms, translating research discovery, and developing talent. Gates, co-chair of the Gates Foundation, is visiting Beijing this week and lauded China’s progress in reducing poverty and improving healthcare outcomes in a speech at the institute today.
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 low- and middle-income countries, the statement said.
Gates has a fortune worth $116.9 billion on the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List today and ranks as the world’s sixth richest person.
He arrived in China ahead of a planned visit in the coming days by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken amid strained ties between the world’s two largest economies (see related post here).
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