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July 20, 2006
Gates Foundation donates $287m for AIDS vaccine research
Max Oliva, Associate Director of IE's Social Impact Management
The Gates foundation has pledged € 228 million to 16 research projects in 19 countries which are intended to accelerate the research on a vaccine for the HIV/Aids virus.
The grant is the largest ever given by the Gates Foundation to HIV/Aids research. It will be shared among 16 research projects in 19 countries.
The most interesting part of the agreement is that all scientists have signed an open collaboration in order to share their data and results on new approaches in the hope of getting the most promising vaccine candidate quickly into clinical trials in humans. All researchers are to share their findings, even if they were previously competing against each other.
"Unfortunately, developing an effective HIV vaccine has proven to be tremendously difficult, and despite the committed efforts of many researchers around the world, progress simply has not been fast enough," said Dr Nicholas Hellmann, of the Gates Foundation's HIV, TB and reproductive health programme.
The main objective of this funding is to identify the most innovative approaches in vaccine research and then direct all future efforts toward those areas.
According to the foundation, it intends to develop global access plans in order to ensure that the discoveries from the research are both accessible and affordable in developing countries.
Have a look at an interview by MSNBC which took place Tuesday, Juy 18th, from Bill Clinton and Bill Gates on AIDS.
Learn more about Clinton's trip to Fight Aids in Africa.
Have an In Depth look at the Aids Crisis by the BBC.
Posted on 20 July 2006 in Philanthropy, Development, Social Entrepreneurship
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