Overview

Four Founding
Principles

Four core principles serve as the foundation for our business model and strategy:

Open Innovation

Traditionally, drugs, vaccines and diagnostics have been developed under a single roof, but the processes of “Open Innovation” - in which R&D takes place through collaborative projects involving multiple organizations - is becoming increasingly common.

Because we work with a broad network of partners, GHIT is well placed to facilitate international R&D collaboration between Japanese and non-Japanese organizations. The strengths and unique contributions of each partner are amplified by such engagement, and global health product development moves forward faster and more effectively as a result.

Access

Today, a billion people still live on less than $2 a day and lack access to essential healthcare tools. An intricate web of obstacles means essential medicines are often unavailable where most needed. Recognizing this critical challenge, GHIT developed its Access Policy (Data Access Policy and Product Access Policy), which stipulates that the price of products for which GHIT funded the development will be set according to the ‘No Loss, No Gain’ principle. We also solicit proposals based on clearly defined, expert-approved target product profiles (TPPs) that align the unique needs of end-users in the developing world with desired product attributes and performance criteria.

We work closely with international organizations, such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)’s Access & Delivery Partnership, which helps low-and middle-income countries address bottlenecks within their health systems so that GHIT-invested innovations can reach more people, faster. In an effort to further strengthen the bonds between R&D, access and delivery, and health system strengthening, GHIT continuously strives to foster its collaboration with global health entities in Japan and overseas.

Equity

The principle of Equity (fairness) is central to GHIT’s mission to leverage R&D partnerships to reduce health disparities between the rich and the poor. Our investments are motivated by the belief that all communities and individuals deserve affordable access to high-quality drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics to realize their full potential to thrive and prosper.

Transparency

Our approach to impact assessment is underpinned by the principle of Transparency. By being clear about how we evaluate proposals and measure impact, we strengthen the credibility of our investments and improve our ability to communicate and collaborate with product development partners.

Our proposal selection process is public, as are the assessment criteria used to analyze science, management, and impact for global health included in the proposals we receive. Once awards have been made, all our investments are disclosed in our Portfolio, which contains analytics and descriptions of each project in which we decide to invest.

We require all the data and findings associated with our investments to be widely and promptly disclosed, and our development partners use open access repositories or other alternative mechanisms to ensure that their scientific discoveries are made available to the wider global R&D community.