Healthcare Technology Featured Article

September 24, 2013

J.P. Morgan Chase, Gates Foundation Find Common Goals in New Health Tech Fund


Sometimes, smart investment strategy coincides with smart methods to help improve healthcare.

This is the case with J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.’s new fund, in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It targets investments to late-stage health technology in lower-income nations.

There is a pressing need for the fund, given that the amount for global health funding basically remained flat in 2012, news reports said. In fact, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation reports that the United States and some other governments reduced the amount given to relevant programs in developing nations by 4.4 percent, Bloomberg News said.

So far, the fund has raised some $94 million from investors. This money will be used for improving public health. It will help to develop new drugs and vaccines, as well as diagnostic tools, increase pediatric versions of products now used by adults, and improve manufacturing capacity in healthcare technology.

The conditions it will address include HIV-AIDS, infant mortality, malaria, maternal health and tuberculosis. 

"The Global Health Investment Fund demonstrates the potential for innovative collaborations and thoughtful financial structures to mobilize new sources of capital for social challenges," J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon said in a recent statement. “This product brings a diverse group of investors together around the shared objective of developing life-saving technologies in a financially sustainable way.”

The fund will try to earn a return for its investors with investments that have public health applications in emerging and developed markets, Bloomberg added.

Even if there are losses seen in the fund, the Gates Foundation and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency will help offset some of them.

Investors in the fund include such national governments as Germany and Canada, and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation. Other investors include International Finance Corp., GlaxoSmithKline PLC, Merck & Co, the Pfizer Foundation, Storebrand and J.P. Morgan Chase.

LHGP Asset Management was selected to originate and manage investments in the fund, according to a report from NASDAQ.




Edited by Alisen Downey
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