A $2.5 billion pledge makes women’s health a priority in Gates
Foundation spend-down
[August 06, 2025]
By ALEX DANIELS
Innovations on the horizon in women’s health show what’s possible with
more investment. With the help of ultrasound equipment powered by
artificial intelligence, frontline health care workers may be able to
track the progress of developing embryos with a minimum of training. And
birth control injections that last six months could give women more
control over reproduction.
Those are just two potential breakthroughs out of more than 40 the Gates
Foundation intends to support through a five-year, $2.5 billion
commitment on women’s health research and development, more than triple
the amount it has spent on women’s health innovation over the past five
years.
“Many of the most pressing conditions impacting women still remain
understudied, underdiagnosed, and overlooked,” said Ru-fong Joanne
Cheng, director of Women’s Health Innovations at Gates.
A very small share of medical research funding supports the study of
health specific to women, including gynecological and menstrual health,
obstetric care, contraceptive innovation, sexually transmitted
infections, and maternal health and nutrition, the foundation said. It
cited a 2021 McKinsey and Company study that found 1% of all medical
research, setting aside cancer research, goes toward women’s health.
The foundation framed the commitment as part of its May announcement
that it would spend down its assets over the next 20 years and
concentrate much of its support on global health. While much of the
research funded over the next five years will benefit women worldwide,
the foundation said, the need is most acute in sub-Saharan Africa and
Southeast Asia.
By devoting billions to women’s health, the foundation has signaled it
intends to continue to invest in the cause following the 2024 departure
of Melinda French Gates, who led the foundation’s support of girls’ and
women’s health. Since her divorce from Bill Gates, French Gates has
committed more than $1 billion to improve women’s physical and mental
health, provide more economic opportunity to women, and increase their
political sway.
The announcement follows a U.S. pullback of support for global maternal
health programs during the first seven months of the Trump
administration.
The shuttering of the U.S. Agency for International Development and
program reductions at the Centers for Disease Control have sunset
programs focused on women’s health. According to a March internal USAID
memo, the agency’s closure will stop services for 16.8 million pregnant
women annually.
In April, the World Health Organization said that the 40 percent decline
in maternal deaths from 2000 to 2023 has been put at risk because of aid
cuts.
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Microsoft co-founder and former CEO Bill Gates speaks during a 50th
Anniversary celebration event at Microsoft headquarters on April 4,
2025, in Redmond, Wash. (AP Photo/Jason Redmond, File)
 ‘We need both innovation and
delivery’
While the foundation continues to focus on the delivery of health
care globally in an era of governmental retreat, the $2.5 billion
will focus squarely on research needed to save lives, Anita Zaidi,
president of Gates’s Gender Equality Division, said on a press call
Monday to discuss the announcement.
“This is an innovation-focused announcement,” she said. “We need
both innovation and delivery.”
It’s important to remember that the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration has only been required to test novel drugs on women
in clinical trials since 1993, and many tests are still only done on
men, said Katy Brodsky Falco, founder of the Foundation for Women’s
Health, which plans to make $5 million in research grants this year.
With Gates getting behind research and development of women’s health
with such a large commitment, others may follow, Brodsky Falco said.
“Hopefully it will bring the issue to the top of the conversation
among private donors and family foundations, even if they otherwise
haven’t supported this type of work,” she said.
Moses Obimbo Madadi, professor at the University of Nairobi, noted
that postpartum hemorrhaging causes about 3,000 deaths annually in
Kenya. If men were the victims, he said, a G7 conference would be
called to find a solution, but research on the subject has largely
been ignored because it claims the lives of women.
“We’ve treated this as a peripheral issue other than making it a
centerpiece of our research,” he said, calling the Gates commitment
a “very good starting point.”
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Alex Daniels is a senior reporter at the Chronicle of Philanthropy,
where you can read the full article. This article was provided to
The Associated Press by the Chronicle of Philanthropy as part of a
partnership to cover philanthropy and nonprofits supported by the
Lilly Endowment. The Chronicle is solely responsible for the
content.
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