Gates Foundation has announced a $2.5 billion commitment through 2030 to accelerate research and development (R&D) focused exclusively on women’s health.

It will support the advancement of more than 40 innovations in five critical, chronically underfunded areas, particularly those affecting women in low- and middle-income countries.

The funding is meant to advance more than 40 innovations across five critical, underfunded areas of women’s maternal health/obstetrics; maternal nutrition; gynaecological and menstrual health; contraceptive innovation; and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The foundation disclosed this at a virtual press briefing yesterday, noting that women’s health R&D remained chronically underfunded. adding that gynaecological and menstrual health, obstetric care, contraceptive innovation, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) solutions (including HIV PrEP for women), and maternal health and nutrition received limited investment.

According to a 2021 analysis led by McKinsey & Company, just one per cent of healthcare research and innovation is invested in female-specific conditions beyond oncology, while critical issues like preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, heavy menstrual bleeding, endometriosis, and menopause, which together affect hundreds of millions of women, remain deeply under-researched.

Speaking at the event, the Chair of the Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, lamented that women’s health had continually been ignored, underfunded, and sidelined. He stated that many women still die from preventable causes or live in poor health. “That must change. But we can’t do it alone,” he said.