Dr. Slingsby announced the establishment of the GHIT Fund at the WHA event.
World Health Organization Assembly (WHA) was held during May 20th and 28th, 2013 in Geneva, Switzerland. Dr. B.T.

Slingsby, CEO of the GHIT Fund participated as a panelists on the WHA event titled “Innovative Financing for Global Health R&D: Global Health Experts Comment on Japan’s First Public-Private Partnership to Advance Global Health R&D”
“Six out of ten of the world’s poorest people are affected by HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis and NTDs every year. Yet half of these deaths are preventable. We can save millions of lives leveraging Japanese technology, innovation and insights with partnering with global community toward eliminating these infectious diseases. The GHIT Fund aims to utilize the innovation and technologies found throughout the country’s pharmaceutical companies, universities, and its world-class research institutions”, Dr. Slingsby explained in his opening remarks.

The GHIT Fund is the first fund of its kind in which a group of pharmaceutical companies are joining efforts with national government and an international foundation to advance the discovery and development of new global health technologies.
A new financing mechanism for global health R&D by GHIT Fund to fight against diseases that disproportionately affect the poorest of the poor drew significant attention from government officials attending WHA as well as non-governmental organizations and professionals in the global health space.

Dr. Slingsby was joined by Dr. Mitsuhiro Ushio (Assistant Minister for Global Health, Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare, Japan), Dr. Bernard Pecoul (Executive Director of Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative) and Dr. David Reddy (CEO of Medicine For Malaria Venture). The panelists voiced their expectations towards the GHIT Fund highlighting that it is a novel model to fund global health R&D with the potential to accelerate the creation of a sustainable pipeline of new tools to tackle infectious diseases prevalent in developing world. The panel culminated with a consensus on need for similar mechanisms in other countries that can better bring the public and private sectors together.