Melinda French Gates Unveils $100 Mn Initiative to Address Women’s Health Crisis

Partnership with Wellcome Leap aims to tackle high-mortality diseases like cardiovascular, autoimmune, and mental health conditions.

Philanthropist Melinda French Gates has unveiled a new $100 million initiative dedicated to transforming women’s health research, an area historically underfunded and overlooked in global healthcare.

The funding is being jointly contributed by Pivotal, the network of organizations she founded in 2015 to advance women’s progress worldwide, and Wellcome Leap, a U.S.-based nonprofit known for fast-tracking innovations in global health. With each contributing $50 million.

The partnership will prioritize women’s health conditions with the highest rates of mortality and disease burden, including cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disorders, mental health, and chronic illnesses linked to menopause.

Speaking about the urgency of the initiative, French Gates emphasized the need to expand research beyond cancer to cover other diseases that disproportionately affect women.

“We are really going to go after women’s diseases we haven’t looked at, things like cardiovascular disease, menopause, and chronic illnesses,” she said.

The research will be managed by Wellcome Leap, which is recognized for its “accelerated model” of research that delivers results within years rather than decades.

By combining rapid scientific methods with targeted funding, the initiative aims to generate breakthrough solutions that could improve health outcomes for millions of women worldwide.

Advocacy & Funding Gap

This announcement builds on French Gates’ two decades of advocacy for women’s health.

In October 2024, she pledged $250 million to organizations improving women’s mental and physical health through her Action for Women’s Health initiative, with awardees expected to be announced later this year.

She has also repeatedly highlighted the stark funding gap in healthcare, pointing out that in 2024, only 1% of pharmaceutical research funding outside cancer was directed toward women’s health.

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