A new fund, one of whose anchor investors is Canada’s federal government, will, for the first time, allow retail and institutional investors to finance late-stage global health technologies that could potentially save millions of lives in impoverished countries.
Started by JPMorgan Chase & Co. and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Global Health Investment Fund has raised $94 million so far. Anchor investors include Grand Challenges Canada, a federally funded foreign aid initiative designed to fight global health challenges, and the U.K.-based Children’s Investment Fund Foundation.
Intended for developing countries, the fund aims to help fight conditions such as malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and maternal and infant mortality.
The fund will seek a financial return for investors by targeting high-impact technologies with public health applications, according to Grand Challenges Canada. It will invest in applications such as emerging diagnostic tools and new drugs and vaccines.
“Millions of children die each year or suffer from debilitating conditions because the right treatment does not exist for them,” says Jamie Cooper-Hohn, chair of the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation. “Relatively little investment goes to the development of new drugs, vaccines and diagnostics specifically targeted at children in developing countries where child mortality is most dire.”
The fund’s portfolio investments will be managed by LHGP Asset Management, a London-based asset manager specializing in sustainable development.
About 200 global health innovation projects are currently under development, but late-stage clinical trials are expensive, so development costs are outpacing charitable support.