PHA-Exchange> Drugs executive to head Gates Foundation fund

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From: "Vern Weitzel" <vern.weitzel at undp.org>

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Drugs executive to head Gates Foundation fund
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 biggest 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 partnerships that
initiatives such as the
Medicines for Malaria Venture, 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 foundation'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 Partnership.

"The Gates Foundation has the same budget as the World Health Organization
and has a big influence
on what happens in the developing 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".
Yamada will take up his position in June 2006 after he retires from GSK.