The Global Health Innovative Technology (GHIT) Fund has announced a total of 520 million yen ($4.6 million) to support four partnerships to develop new lifesaving drugs and vaccines for malaria, tuberculosis, dengue and leishmaniasis. This includes three new projects and one that will receive continued funding.

The project on dengue is in collaboration with Nagasaki University, National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID), VLP Therapeutics, Johns Hopkins University (JHU), Latham BioPharm Group (Latham); the leishmaniasis project is teamed up with The University of Tokyo, Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI), International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh; for the malaria project, The University of Tokyo, Medicines for Malaria Venture is the partner; and the project on tuberculosis is in collaboration with Fujifilm, Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance).

Including the recent investment projects announcement, GHIT has invested approximately 14.1 billion yen ($124 million) in 77 global product development partnerships that leverage Japanese science and capabilities in pharmaceutical research and development. Currently, 23 discovery projects, 13 preclinical projects, and eight clinical trials are under way in low- and middle-income countries.