Microsoft: Gates’ $258M Grant for Malaria

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation donates funds for malaria-related initiatives.
By Priya Ganapati
October 31, 2005

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will give $258.3 million for the development of a malaria vaccine, drugs, and research to combat the disease that kills more than 1 million people worldwide every year, mostly children in Africa.

The latest grants bring the total spending on malaria-related initiatives by the Gates Foundation to about $718 million since its inception in 1998, the foundation said Monday. Two of the grants will be spent over five years and the third will be disbursed over six years.

The grants will cement the Gates Foundation’s position as one of the leaders in the fight against malaria.

Global funding in 2004 for malaria research and development totaled $323 million, according to a study by the Malaria R&D Alliance, an international coalition of malaria research groups. The U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Gates Foundation accounted for 49 percent.

The U.S. government invested $129 million in 2004, which comprised 70 percent of total public-sector support for the disease worldwide and almost 40 percent of the total investment.

Malaria represents just 0.3 percent of total health-related R&D spending. This is not proportionate to the havoc caused by malaria, which accounts for 3.1 percent of the global disease-related burden, the organization said.

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