PHA-Exch> Gates Charity Bolsters Approach

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Vern Weitzel vern at coombs.anu.edu.au
 "[health-vn discussion group]" health-vn at cairo.anu.edu.au

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119189444472753026.html?mod=dist_smartbrief

Gates Charity Bolsters Approach

New Grants Cut Red Tape In Effort to Speed Funding For Novel Health Research

By MARILYN CHASE

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation today will start a $100 million fund
to
nurture unorthodox approaches to global health, inviting scientists to bid
for
small, quickly awarded grants.


While other philanthropies and government entities have dabbled in backing
offbeat medical experiments, the Gates initiative is among the richest and
most
ambitious donor-backed programs of this kind.

The initiative follows two disappointments in large trials whose results
were
reported recently. The trials showed that the cervical diaphragm and a
vaccine
developed by Merck & Co. failed to prevent infection with the AIDS virus. If
the
new tack by the world's biggest private charity bears fruit, it could pave
the
way for similar moves by other grant providers.

The Grand Challenges Explorations program, to be announced in Cape Town,
South
Africa, will reach out to scientists in Africa and Asia, where disease is
widespread and money is scarce, though it will be open to all comers.
"Talent is
grouped in great institutions, but not all of it," Mr. Gates said in an
interview. "There's a real logic to being where a disease exists."

Typical multimillion-dollar Gates Foundation grants require lengthy
applications
supported by data, financial oversight and peer review often taking six
months
to a year or more -- which can overwhelm scientists in underdeveloped
countries.
"As grants get big, the risk element can get squeezed out," Mr. Gates said,
adding "if you're giving away $5 million at a whack," it requires accounting
oversight and a mature development plan at odds with novelty.

---------
SETTING THE AGENDA
• What's Happening: The Gates Foundation will announce a new $100 million
fund
for early, unorthodox health innovations in a search for tools to fight
global
epidemics.
• Behind the News: This year has seen the failure of two major
AIDS-prevention
trials, making it urgent to refill the pipeline of early-stage science.
• What's Next: The $34.6 billion foundation will issue a request for
proposals
early next year, encouraging in particular scientists from developing
nations to
apply.
---------

The new streamlined program will use a shorter application form, and the
review
will take a few months. Grantees whose concepts prove promising can later
apply
for additional funding. Given the current atmosphere of fiscal constraint at
the
National Institutes of Health, where grants tend to favor traditional
science,
"the Gates program is a welcome move toward trying to fund new and high-risk
ideas," said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy
and
Infectious Diseases at the NIH. He added that the NIH itself has been trying
to
address the need to support novelty through its Pioneer Awards.

As a secondary goal, Mr. Gates said he hopes his foundation's new grants
will
encourage scientists in developing countries to stay at home rather than
emigrating.

The family philanthropy of the Microsoft Corp. co-founder and his wife
boasts an
endowment of $34.6 billion. So far, it has committed $13.7 billion in
grants,
with $7.95 billion going to global health programs addressing AIDS,
tuberculosis, malaria and childhood vaccines.

Investor Warren Buffett's 2006 pledge of $31 billion of his Berkshire
Hathaway
Inc. fortune to the Gates Foundation will eventually double the pace of
annual
grant giving to $3 billion by 2009. Now, having funded many biomedical
projects,
Gates officials are looking to refill the pipeline with novel ideas.

"New ideas shouldn't have to battle for oxygen as hard as they do," said
Tadataka "Tachi" Yamada, the foundation's executive director of global
health.
He points out that one "ludicrous" challenge to conventional wisdom -- the
idea
that bacteria and not stomach acid caused ulcers -- eventually won a Nobel
Prize
and changed the standard of medical care.

One example Mr. Gates cited was the foundation's sponsorship of a program
that
uses radiation to zap malaria parasites in their invasive stage, known as
sporozoites. "Most people look at that and say, 'Whoa, this is pretty wild,'
"
Mr. Gates said.

Previous Gates grants have gone to more-mature research projects in malaria,
AIDS and TB prevention. Refilling the epidemic-prevention pipeline has
become
more urgent after the failures of the HIV-diaphragm study and Merck's
vaccine.

A detailed call for proposals in the new endeavor is expected in the first
quarter of 2008.

Write to Marilyn Chase at marilyn.chase at wsj.com
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