In addressing the issues of Access to Health identified as materiality, a key pillar of Astellas’ Access to Health strategy focuses on collaborating with external partners and supporting for their activities by leveraging Astellas’ strength with external partners.
As a part of this strategy, Astellas supports the research and development of drugs, vaccines, diagnostics and other products for tuberculosis, malaria and other neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) through the participation of the Global Health Innovative Technology Fund (GHIT Fund). In the goal of combatting infectious diseases prevalent in the world’s poorest countries, the GHIT Fund, specializes in global health R&D, has fought these diseases as an international public-private partnership fund (PPP) between the Japanese Government: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, private sector, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wellcome and the United Nations Development Programme.
The GHIT Fund has invested a total of approximately 29.1 billion yen in 118 projects over the last ten years. Demonstrating the GHIT Fund’s strength of partnerships, over 170 partners (59 domestic and 111 global groups) have participated in product development thus far(As of May 31, 2023). Japanese innovation and capacities in pharmaceuticals have been directly and effectively leveraged to global health R&D from target research which is initial stage of drug discovery to clinical trials in South America and Africa.
Astellas has contributed to the GHIT Fund since the inception of the Fund. In alignment with Astellas’ Access to Health strategy, one way we contribute to helping to resolve Access to Health issues is through continuous participation as a partner in the third phase of the GHIT Fund.
Related links
GHIT Fund
GHIT Fund Annual Report 2022
