Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announces 50-mln-USD donation to China's drug center

YEREVAN, JUNE 16, ARMENPRESS. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced it would donate 50 million U.S. dollars to the Beijing-based Global Health Drug Discovery Institute (GHDDI) over five years.

The funds will support the development of drugs for infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis and malaria, that disproportionately affect people living in low and middle-income countries, thus working to improve global health, the foundation said.

A non-profit research organization in China, the GHDDI was jointly founded by the foundation, Tsinghua University and the Beijing municipal government in 2016, Xinhua reports.

The municipal government will provide financial support of the same scale, and Tsinghua University has pledged continued support for research platforms, achievement transformations and talent training.

Bill Gates met with China’s President Xi Jinping on June 16 in Beijing.