Only 1% of health R&D targets women. The Gates Foundation aims to change this with a push of 2.5 billion dollars

Tackling this disparity is the objective of the first major tranche of the $ 200 billion that Bill Gates has committed to improving global health via his Gates Foundation in the next two decades. The co-founder of Microsoft announced in May that it would deploy most of the rest of its massive richness in a total effort to eradicate a multitude of diseases that threaten the poorest in the world. Then, he said, the foundation he started in 2000 with his wife of the time, Melinda French Gates, will close.

During an event with Stat News in Cambridge, Mass., To announce the initiative, Gates underlined the successes that the Foundation managed to reduce infant mortality by vaccinations and reduce maternal mortality with simple and inexpensive devices to measure blood loss. “The progress of the death of childhood has been quite phenomenal; maternal deaths have not decreased so quickly,” he said. “We said,” We really have to continue these things. “”

Dr. Anita Zaidi, president of the gender equality division at the Gates Foundation, underlined the research in 2021 of McKinsey which revealed that, excluding cancer research, only 1% of R&D of health care is invested in specific conditions for women. And as Zaidi wrote in a comment to Fortune Today, “for the conditions that affect women and men, women are seriously under-represented in clinical trials, we have barely scratched the surface of understanding how women suffer from common conditions like cardiovascular disease.”

The Foundation aims to withdraw Moshot innovations using AI to diagnose and treat women, as well as to extend the use of existing technology. The technology that is widely available in richer countries – such as an ultrasound to determine how pregnancy is progressing – is out of reach for many women in poor countries. “In fact,” said Zaidi, announcing the investment of the Foundation, “70% of women do not have access to a simple ultrasound during pregnancy”.

Even in rich countries like the United States, Zaidi wrote, there are major gaps in women’s health care. In Northern Dakota, for example, one in four women must drive more than an hour to reach the nearest birth hospital. “In 2022, approximately 2.3 million American women of prosecutor lived in” maternity deserts “, defined as counties without hospital, birth center, doctors and midwives with baby delivery experience,” she wrote.

Funding of $ 2.5 billion for research and development will focus on five areas: obstetrics and maternal immunization; maternal and nutrition health; gynecological and menstrual health; contraceptive innovation; and sexually transmitted infections. Among the areas, the Foundation hopes to make progress is research on the vaginal microbiome, therapy for preeclampsia and non -hormonal contraception.

The work to be financed also has economic and commercial dimensions, Zaidi underlined: the foundation quotes research showing that each $ 1 invested in the health of women reports $ 3 in economic growth. “Women’s health is not only a philanthropic cause,” said Zaidi. “This is an opportunity to be invested with a huge potential for scientific breakthroughs that could help millions of women.”

Zaidi stressed that the commitment of $ 2.5 billion in the Foundation, while “is only a drop in the bucket”. It only covers part of the upcoming battle to protect women and their children against the death of avoidable causes. Funding is allocated to research and development. The delivery of real solutions to women around the world is a complicated process that requires collaborations with governments, other philanthropies and businesses.

“It’s really a big task,” said Dr. Ru-Fong Joanne Cheng, director of women’s health innovations. “We need everyone to join, raises the visibility of these problems, raising the fact that so little attention has been paid to health of more than half of the globe population … This will not happen spontaneously; This must be intentional. This must be deliberate. “