Gates Foundation's top 10 health grant winners

Since it was set up 20 years ago, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has been one of the biggest sources of development funding. Based on its own 2020 figures, the foundation has spent around $60.1 billion on grants in the last two decades. Among its program areas, health has emerged as one of its top priorities. Gates has seven major funding themes, one of which is global health — its program focused on reducing global health inequality. According to the Gates Foundation’s 2020 annual report, its most recent, it spent $1.8 billion on global health grants. This represented 30.8% of its spending that year. The priorities of global health ranged from vaccine development, supporting emerging health technologies, to working toward the eradication of infectious diseases, such as malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS. Devex identified the top grantees in this area. For the purpose of this analysis, we only looked into grants tagged by the foundation as belonging to the global health program. Grants tagged under multiple programs, which include global health, were also analyzed. Other grants with health components, but falling under a different program, such as global development, were excluded from the analysis. From 1998 to April 2022, the foundation has awarded a total of 6,666 grants under global health, worth $24.2 billion. Of this amount, $7.3 billion, or 30.1%, went to the top 10 grantees. All of the top 10 grantees are based in high-income countries — eight in the United States and two in Switzerland. The World Health Organization is the only multilateral organization. The rest are all nonprofit organizations, with one public-private partnership. The top 10 health grantees 1. PATH Headquarters: Seattle, Washington Established: 1977 Total number of grants: 165 Total value of grants: $1.8 billion PATH, a global nonprofit focused on health equity, has consistently been one of the leading grantees of the Gates Foundation. Its first grant dates back to 1999, worth $50 million, or almost third of the foundation’s allocation to health that year. Its biggest grant, worth $184.9 million, was for the development of the RTS,S malaria vaccine — which in 2021 became the first malaria vaccine recommended for broad use by WHO. A further $468.7 million was awarded to two of PATH’s supporting organizations: PATH Vaccine Solutions and PATH Drug Solutions. 2. World Health Organization Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland Established: 1948 Total number of grants: 213 Total value of grants: $941.9 million Grants awarded to WHO ranged from supporting health forums and initiatives, increasing access to health diagnostics and treatment, to supporting vaccine research and development. Its biggest award, worth $58 million, aimed to increase access to health products for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of priority diseases, such as HIV, malaria, TB, and polio. 3. University of Washington Foundation Headquarters: Seattle, Washington Established: 1988 Total number of grants: 123 Total value of grants: $924.4 million The University of Washington Foundation received grants for a number of activities — from scientific and laboratory research to development of treatment for diseases, such as malaria, shigellosis, and TB. In 2016, it was awarded $311.6 million to expand and update the evidence base to improve global population health. 4. Medicines for Malaria Venture Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland Established: 1999 Total number of grants: 17 Total value of grants: $726.8 million MVV is a nonprofit public-private partnership focused on the development of antimalarial drugs. Its partnership with Gates spans two decades. In 2013, it was awarded $184.7 million for the development of new antimalarial medicines. 5. Aeras Headquarters: Rockville, Maryland Established: 2003 Total number of grants: 16 Total value of grants: $514 million Aeras is a biotechnology organization working on the development of TB vaccines. Its biggest grant worth $200.7 million was for the development and licensing of a vaccine against TB in high burden countries. 6. Foundation for the National Institutes of Health Headquarters: North Bethesda, Maryland Established: 1990 Total number of grants: 30 Total value of grants: $506.6 million FNIH supports the U.S. National Institute of Health through medical discoveries. It received grants from the Gates Foundation for a wide range of activities — from convening health conferences and forums, to research and development of treatment against diseases, such as TB, malaria, and HIV. Among its awards, the biggest was for the development of a funding mechanism that will accelerate progress in addressing diseases, worth $200.8 million. 7. Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute Headquarters: Cambridge, Massachusetts Established: 2017 Total number of grants: 2 Total value of grants: $479 million A subsidiary of the Gates Foundation, Gates MRI works on the development of biomedical interventions to address global health issues. Its programs focus mainly on diseases, such as TB, malaria, diarrheal diseases, and maternal, newborn, and child illnesses. It was awarded two grants: $475 million for the development of diagnostics and therapeutics for diseases affecting poor populations across the globe; and $4 million for research and development of therapeutics for mild COVID-19. 8. Global Alliance for TB Drug Development Headquarters: New York City, New York Established: 2000 Total number of grants: 12 Total value of grants: $476.1 million TB Alliance focuses on the development of drugs for TB. Except for a few grants that supported partnerships toward vaccine development, all of its awards from the Gates Foundation were for TB drugs research and development, with the biggest one worth $150.6 million. 9. Clinton Health Access Initiative Headquarters: Boston, Massachusetts Established: 2002 Total number of grants: 64 Total value of grants: $449.5 million Initially, CHAI was established to focus on addressing HIV/AIDS in low- and middle-income countries. Now, its priorities have expanded to include other health issues, such as developing treatment for diseases, reducing maternal and infant mortality, and strengthening health systems. Its biggest grant, worth $70.6 million, supported the advancement of data-driven malaria interventions in Africa and the greater Mekong subregion. 10. International AIDS Vaccine Initiative Headquarters: New York City, New York Established: 1996 Total number of grants: 33 Total value of grants: $442.9 million IAVI is among the first recipients of Gates health grants, with $1.5 million in 1998 — the first year the foundation awarded health-related grants. Its biggest award, worth $100 million, supported the effort to create and distribute an AIDS vaccine. Try out Devex Pro Funding today with a free five-day trial, and explore funding opportunities from over 850 sources in addition to our analysis and news content.