15 Major Research Funding Organizations to Present at Gates /BIO Global Health Forum

WASHINGTON, D.C. (November 14, 2002) – The Gates Foundation and the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) announced today that 15 major research-funding organizations will present at the Partnering for Global Health Forum, Dec. 3-5, at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. The forum will bring together industry leaders, potential funders and international health experts to discuss how biotechnology can be used to research diseases in the developing world.

These groups are the top research funding organizations supporting work on neglected diseases. The list includes major public-private partnerships, private foundations and key government agencies. In a series of funder presentations at the conference, these organizations will provide extensive information on the projects they are currently funding, the types of agreements they have made with companies to accelerate the discovery and development of new medical products, and how biotech can obtain much-needed capital to discover and develop therapies for neglected diseases.

Below is a list of presenting organizations. Please visit www.bio.org for complete information.

· The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
· The Rockefeller Foundation
· National Institutes of Health (NIH)
· U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
· U.S. Department of Defense (DoD)
· World Health Organization, Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR)
· Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (GATB)
· INDEPTH
· International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI)
· International Finance Corporation (IFC)
· Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI)
· Medical Research Council (MRC)
· Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV)
· Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi)
· Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH)

Confirmed speakers for the forum include Dr. Elias Zerhouni, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH); Dr. David L. Heymann, executive director of communicable diseases for the World Health Organization (WHO); Carl B. Feldbaum, president of BIO; Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID); Richard G.A. Feachem, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; Laurie Garrett, winner of the Pulitzer, Polk and Peabody Prize and author of The Coming Plague; and Dr. Richard Klausner, executive director of Global Health for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Complimentary advance press registration is available for credentialed members of the news media. Please visit www.bio.org to register.

BIO represents more than 1,000 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations in all 50 U.S. states and 33 other nations. BIO members are involved in the research and development of health-care, agricultural, industrial and environmental biotechnology products.

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