Sept. 10 (UPI) — Melinda French Gates announced a partnership that will commit $100 million to speed women’s health research.
The partnership between Pivotal, a group of organizations founded by French Gates, and the non-profit Wellcome Leap will focus on areas of women’s health with the highest rates of mortality, including autoimmune disease, mental health and cardiovascular health.
French Gates announced the new initiative Wednesday in an interview with “Good Morning America” co-anchor Robin Roberts.
“We are really going to go after women’s diseases we haven’t looked at, things like cardiovascular disease, menopause, chronic illnesses,” French Gates told ABC. “We really can do a lot more research in these areas — and I’m talking in years, not decades — to change women’s lives.”
The funding comes from a $50 million donation from Wellcome Leap and a $50 million donation from Pivotal, which French Gates founded in 2015.
The money will go toward two new women’s health programs launching next year, French Gates said.
“A woman’s trajectory in life — I believe — really starts with their health,” philanthropist French Gates said Wednesday at the 2025 Forbes Power Women’s Summit. “Whatever they want to do, they have to be well.”
“And yet, we don’t invest far enough money into women’s health,” she said. “We’re going to change that.”
Part of the problem is a lack of research specific to women.
“For so long, the research community has treated women as if they’re small men. Women are not small men,” said Regina Dugan of Wellcome Leap during the Forbes event.
“And to give you a sense of the gap that that creates, 99% of the studies on the biology of aging do not include a model for menopause,” Dugan said. “Now how can that be? We’re 50% of the population.”
French Gates has made women’s health a priority for a long time.
She has ramped up funding in the area since stepping away from the Gates Foundation, which she ran for 25 years with her ex-husband, Bill Gates. In May 2024, she announced a $1 billion pledge to support organizations advancing the rights of women and other underrepresented groups.
She pledged $200 million to organizations focused on women’s power and leadership, another $240 million to prominent people to channel into women’s health nonprofits. She also unveiled a $250 million open call last October to fund organizations working to improve women’s mental and physical health.
The Gates Foundation has also made women’s health a focus. In August, it committed $2.5 billion through 2030 to boost research and development in areas such as maternal, contraceptive and menstrual health.
“A woman can’t do well in life if she’s not healthy,” French Gates said. “If we want, for instance, more women in our legislatures, more women in our Congress, more women in our state houses to make good policy, they need to be well to be able to do it-and that is one of the barriers we’re going to break down.”