Japan fund invests $11.4M to fight malaria, TB

JAPAN-based public-private partnership Global Health Innovative Technology Fund (GHIT Fund) has issued funding totaling $11.4 million for six research projects to fight malaria and tuberculosis (TB), the investment firm announced late last month.

Part of GHIT Fund’s new investments, $1.8 million, will go to a continuing research project to develop antimalarial drugs, which is being carried out by a partnership between Swiss-based Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), a product development partnership in the field of antimalarial drug research, and major Japanese pharmaceutical company Daiichi Sankyo Company, Ltd. GHIT Fund has been financing this project since the fund’s establishment three years ago, the company said.