[afro-nets] Drugs executive to head Gates Foundation fund

[Claudio Schuftan <claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn>]

Drugs executive to head Gates Foundation fund
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http://www.scidev.net/News/index.cfm?fuseaction=readNews&itemid=2653&language=1

Tachi Yamada will join the Gates Foundation in June 2006

Sophie Hebden
10 February 2006
Source: SciDev.Net

The head of research and development at one of the world's big-
gest drug companies has been chosen to lead the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation's global health programme.

Tachi Yamada, currently at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), will oversee
grants worth US$6 billion for developing and delivering drugs
and vaccines against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and other infectious
diseases.

"The appointment is a loss for GSK but a tremendous gain for
global health," says Victoria Hale, chief executive officer of
the Institute for OneWorld Health.

Hale points out that Yamada oversaw the GSK's Diseases of the
Developing World programme, and has a "longstanding commitment
to not-for-profit pharmaceuticals".

The programme is among a growing number of public-private part-
nerships that initiatives such as the Medicines for Malaria Ven-
ture, the Global TB Alliance and the Institute for OneWorld
Health are pursuing to improve health in developing countries.

"Most importantly," adds Hale, "Yamada has set an example for
other pharmaceutical executives ­ to give back after having done
well."

The Gates Foundation has already committed millions of dollars
to GSK in a partnership intended to boost research into diseases
that primarily affect the developing world.

Yamada's appointment could signal a strengthening of the founda-
tion's commitment to working with drugs companies in this way.

"It is a very responsible job," says Brian Greenwood, professor
of clinical tropical medicine at the London School of Hygiene
and Tropical Medicine and director of the Gates Malaria Partner-
ship.

"The Gates Foundation has the same budget as the World Health
Organization and has a big influence on what happens in the de-
veloping world," he told SciDev.Net.

In a statement on the foundation's website, Bill Gates says that
Yamada has "organised the best talent around big challenges,
knows what it takes to bring promising science from the lab to
people in need, and understands how to engage new partners". Ya-
mada will take up his position in June 2006 after he retires
from GSK.