Free Advice, Trevor

To state the obvious, the billions of dollars given way by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) have enabled much good and improved global health over the past ten years, but, as with most philanthropic endeavors, the foundation has been weak in measuring the effectiveness of its grants and the performance of its grantees.   [...]

Over to the Dark Side

Back now from my trip out to the wild, wooly, and wet west, I noted a story by Luke Timmerman, ace biotech reporter for Xconomy Seattle, that Tachi Yamada, former president of the global health program at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, had joined the venture capital firm of Frazier Healthcare Ventures as a [...]

BMGF Ventures LLP

One of the better aspects of capitalism is its ability to create wealth and one it worst aspects is concentrating that wealth in a minority elite.  But with a little nudging from the US government in the form of favorable tax treatment for the wealthy and their philanthropic foundations that wealth can be put to [...]

Watch Out Big Pharma?

I group the costs of making the neglected diseases (those without treatments) less neglected into:  the costs to develop and manufacture a new treatment and the costs of buying (at a price which is the cost plus a profit to make the production sustainable and the producer economically viable) and distributing it.   The latter seems [...]

Holy Grail Horse Race

Those of you who follow this blog closely will likely realize the importance of this posting; it’s number 53 and therefore marks delivery of a full year of quality insight and analysis in global health, at least, I hope so.  You may also note that it has a new look:  a new layout, more blue [...]

A New Deal Against TB

Along with HIV/AIDS and malaria, tuberculosis (TB) is one of the Big Three of global health diseases, which due to their prevalence, consequence, and predilection for developing resistance to drugs are the focus of international prevention and treatment efforts.  TB is caused by a hardy type of bacteria, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which can infect and kill [...]

Where Does This PATH Lead?

PATH, formerly the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health, is a high-profile, global health non-profit based in Seattle and a favored recipient of Gates Foundation funding, receiving more than $1 billion from the foundation since 1998 (McCoy et al. 2009).  The organization undoubtedly has done and is doing good work, but my business reflex is [...]

PRIs for Global Health

The rubric for starting a company is that good management can make up for weak technology, but nothing can over come a shortage of funding.  With the (few) global health startups attracting experienced biotech executives (e.g., Una Ryan at Diagnostics for All [DFA] and Andrew Schiermeier at Medicines in Need [MEND]) and a surfeit of [...]

The Gates Foundtion: For-Profits Need not Apply?

Since 1996, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has put its considerable resources to work to “ensure that life-saving health advances reach those who need them most” (Gates Global Health Overview).  But, due to the extent and range of the foundation’s giving, it has been difficult to figure out who is receiving what and why.  [...]