Gates

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Gates Grant Will Aid Drug And Vaccine Programs in

Developing Countries

WESTPORT, Sep 06 (Reuters Health) - A private nonprofit group

headquartered in Boston,

Massachusetts, announced on Tuesday that it has received a $29.9 million

grant from the Bill &

Melinda Gates Foundation to help developing countries improve their drug

and vaccine delivery

systems.

Management Sciences for Health (MSH) said that it will use the funding

over the next 5 years to

develop and test models for improving access to basic drugs and

vaccines. It is the largest private

grant that the organization has ever received.

" People in developing worlds die...from things for which we have

vaccines and pretty good medicine

available, " MSH chief executive Ron O'Connor told Reuters Health. " They

just don't get to the

hands of people who need them. "

O'Connor said that MSH will focus on bringing together public- and

private-sector organizations to

solve the drug delivery problem. Governments often try to fund

healthcare systems on their own and

that rarely works, he said, especially in countries with very limited

resources.

The grant is likely to have the most sweeping impact on lives of women

and children, O'Connor

noted. " They're the ones most largely dying from diarrhea and

respiratory disease, " he said as an

example.

MSH said that it is trying to bring common sense management practices to

the design of drug

delivery systems, which along with infrastructure issues remains a

persistent obstacle to care in

developing countries.

" The whole focus has to come down to that end user, " said O'Connor.

Although the countries to be targeted have yet to be identified, MSH

hopes to facilitate partnerships

among governments, physicians, and private, non-governmental

organizations, such as Planned

Parenthood clinics or health clinics.

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