07 March 2008

NWDA welcomes further round of funding from the Gates Foundation - taking total to over $100m

Commenting on the $30m of funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine to improve the control and treatment of Malaria in pregnancy, Steven Broomhead, Chief Executive of the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA), said:

“This further funding support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) shows that Liverpool and the Northwest continues to lead the way in scientific and medical research. It is also a first class example of how Agency funding is used to lever in more investment to the region and promote the knowledge economy globally.

This new grant follows the $50.7 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation in 2005, which is helping to find new and better ways to control insects which carry disease, such as Malaria, and the $23 million award to support research led by LSTM to help victims of human filariasis announced last March.

LSTM’s new Centre for Tropical and Infectious Diseases, which received funding from the NWDA and European Objective One to the tune of £18 million in 2005, has added critical value to its ability to attract world-leading research, as evidenced by this latest award which brings Gates Foundation-funded research alone to well over $100m.

All of this support means that the LSTM is one of the world's leading institutions dedicated to developing treatments for infectious and tropical disease and cements the Northwest's growing reputation as an international leader in medical and scientific research and development and a premier location for vaccines biopharmaceutical development and biologics manufacturing in Europe.”

Notes to editors:
The $30 million grant will be used to improve the control and treatment of malaria in pregnancy in Africa, Asia and Latin America.  The five year programme will directly benefit the 50 million women who face exposure to malaria whilst pregnant every year. The grant will fund research at Liverpool and at 41 partner institutions in 29 countries around the world.