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Gates Foundation To Give $280 Million In TB Grants

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Los Angeles Times

Published: September 19, 2007

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced Tuesday that it would give $280 million for research and development of tuberculosis vaccines, diagnostic tests and drugs - its largest package of TB grants.

The grants are intended to accelerate recent progress in fighting the bacterial disease, which is among the world's deadliest, said Tachi Yamada, who heads the foundation's global health program. TB kills 1.6 million people annually worldwide, mostly in developing nations, according to the World Health Organization.

'It's a marathon, not a 100-yard dash,' Yamada said, and efforts supported by the foundation will not reach the market for at least five years, if ever. 'We are willing to take that risk. ... We are hoping that at least some of our investments will bear fruit.'

The largest Gates commitment - $200 million over five years - will go to the Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation in Rockville, Md., for trials of up to six experimental vaccines. The current TB vaccine is 80 years old and largely ineffective.

The Gates Foundation said it also would give $62 million over five years to the Geneva-based Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics to develop faster, simpler TB tests - crucial for speeding up treatment. Definitive TB lab results now can take as long as 75 days.

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