Gates Foundation Donates $25 Million for AIDS Vaccine

On May 3, IAVI (the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative) announced that it has received a $25 million five-year grant from Bill and Melinda Gates, through the William H. Gates Foundation in Seattle. This gift, the largest so far in the AIDS pandemic, will allow IAVI to more than double vaccine development efforts. IAVI is already developing two potential AIDS vaccines, and is now looking for three more, convening scientific think tanks to find the best ideas from around the world.

IAVI is using contracts and other business arrangements to make sure that a successful vaccine will be affordable in developing countries.

16,000 new HIV infections occur every day, and experts agree that a vaccine is ultimately the best way to stop the epidemic. But the major pharmaceutical companies have done little to produce an AIDS vaccine--making the role of private philanthropy all the more important.

The William H. Gates Foundation had previously donated $1.5 million to IAVI--and $100 million to a new program to speed the delivery of new and existing vaccines to children in the poorest countries.

For more information, see http://www.iavi.org, or http://www.gatesfoundation.org/default.htm.