Gates Foundation Commits $2.5 Bn to Advance Women’s Health Innovation

According to the foundation, the need for innovation is especially urgent in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, where women face some of the highest maternal and reproductive health risks.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has announced a $2.5 billion investment in women’s health research and development, aiming to address longstanding gaps in medical innovation for conditions disproportionately affecting women.

The five-year commitment will fund more than 40 initiatives focused on maternal health, contraceptive innovation, gynecological conditions, and more.

“Women’s health continues to be ignored, underfunded and sidelined. Too many women still die from preventable causes or live in poor health,” said Bill Gates in a statement. “That must change.”

The investment, set to be completed by 2030, marks one of the foundation’s first major funding moves since Gates pledged to give away his $200 billion fortune by 2045. It is roughly one-third more than what the foundation spent on women’s and maternal health research in the last five years.

According to the foundation, the need for innovation is especially urgent in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, where women face some of the highest maternal and reproductive health risks. New tools under development include AI-powered ultrasound equipment for frontline workers and long-acting injectable contraceptives lasting up to six months.

“Many of the most pressing conditions impacting women still remain understudied, underdiagnosed, and overlooked,” said Ru-fong Joanne Cheng, director of Women’s Health Innovations at the foundation.

The Gates Foundation identified five core focus areas: obstetric care and maternal immunization, maternal health and nutrition, gynecological and menstrual health, contraceptive innovation, and sexually transmitted infections.

Dr. Anita Zaidi, president of the foundation’s Gender Equality Division, said during a press call, “This is an innovation-focused announcement. We need both innovation and delivery.”

The funding comes amid a rollback in U.S. government support for global maternal health programs, including the closure of initiatives by USAID and the CDC that had served millions of pregnant women annually. In April, the World Health Organization warned that a 40 percent decline in global maternal deaths achieved from 2000 to 2023 is now at risk due to cuts in international aid.

Katy Brodsky Falco, founder of the Foundation for Women’s Health, emphasized the impact of this new funding. “Hopefully it will bring the issue to the top of the conversation among private donors and family foundations,” she said.

Bias in medical research has been a major barrier, experts noted. “If you look at the literature, there may be only 10 women who’ve been studied, ever,” Zaidi told Reuters. “We don’t even have the answers to these basic questions.”

A 2021 analysis by McKinsey & Company found that just 1 percent of healthcare R&D spending went toward female-specific conditions outside of cancer.

In Kenya, postpartum hemorrhage causes around 3,000 deaths annually. “We’ve treated this as a peripheral issue other than making it a centerpiece of our research,” said Moses Obimbo Madadi, professor at the University of Nairobi, who welcomed the Gates commitment as “a very good starting point.”

The initiative also signals the foundation’s continued focus on women’s health following the 2024 departure of Melinda French Gates. Since leaving, she has pledged more than $1 billion to improving women’s health, economic opportunity, and leadership.

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