The Global Health Innovative Technology Fund (GHIT Fund), headquartered in Japan, is an international public-private partnership between the Government of Japan (Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare), 16 pharmaceutical and diagnostics companies (Astellas, Chugai, Eisai, Daiichi Sankyo, Fujifilm, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Kyowa Hakko Kirin, Merck Group, Mitsubishi Tanabe, Nipro, Otsuka, Shionogi, Sumitomo Dainippon, Sysmex and Takeda), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and United Nations Development Programme.
[1][2] Bill Gates has noted that "GHIT draws on the immense innovation capacity of Japan’s pharmaceutical companies, universities and research institutions to accelerate the creation of new vaccines, drugs and diagnostic tools for global health.
"[3] Margaret Chan, former Director-General of the World Health Organization, said: "The GHIT Fund has stepped in to provide that incentive in a pioneering model of partnership that brings Japanese innovation, investment and leadership to the global fight against infectious disease.
One of the products in the pipeline and among the closest to hitting the market is a pediatric formulation of praziquantel, a drug widely used to schistosomiasis, a disease caused by parasitic flatworms.
[9] The idea of a Japanese nonprofit focused on global health R&D was conceived during a conversation between Tachi Yamada and a former executive at Eisai Co. Ltd., BT Slingsby – the fund's first CEO and founder of GHIT.
[21] The GHIT Fund utilizes private-sector standards for product development (e.g., using typical milestones and stage gates for timeline management).
[23] This study provides clinical data and support for registration of a new praziquantel (PZQ) tablet formulation to treat schistosomiasis in preschool-aged children.
Yahoo!Japan has co-launched a special joint website with the Fund: “Save millions of lives from infectious diseases” Archived 9 October 2015 at the Wayback Machine.
[26] On June 1, 2017 GHIT announced it had secured commitments of over US$200 million for its next phase of work, allowing it to move the most advanced tools out of the lab, and into the hands of those who need them most.
As of December 2017 GHIT has invested over of US$115 million across four research platforms into more than 60 global product development partnerships that leverage Japanese innovation and capacities in pharmaceuticals.
The Board is responsible for establishing the organization’s by-laws, providing fiduciary oversight, approving investment recommendations from the Selection Committee, and assessing the Fund’s overall performance.
To further preemptively counter any potential conflicts of interest, all Selection Committee members, including academicians, must declare that they have no relation to proposal applicants or abstain from any decision-making process in the instance when they may.