Read the full article by DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. in the New York Times of 12/6/2005. (Registration required.)
The Gates Foundation funds a great program: The Grand Challenges in Global Health. The program funds innovative research to ammeliorate the major health problems of poor nations; Its one ironclad rule -- "grantees may patent anything they discover, but must make it available cheaply to poor countries." "It was designed "to make sure that innovation wasn't reserved just for big-ticket items like cancer and heart disease," according to Dr. Carol A. Dahl, the foundation's director of global health technologies.
The program was originally announced at $200 million, but raised to $450 million after 1,600 proposals arrived. Grants were announced in June, and the first meeting of 275 grantees was held recently.
The winning teams "came from as far away as Australia and China, with research partners all over Africa and Southeast Asia. Over three days in a Seattle hotel, the 43 team leaders delivered 10-minute summaries of their plans, quizzed foundation officials about details of the grants and discussed possible ethical quandaries with bioethicists from the University of Toronto."
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
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