Gates Package — page 532

• The establishment of NICHD's Global Network for Women's and Children's Health Research was the first public-private partnerships between NIH and the BMGF. The BMGF provided $15M over the first 3 years and was instrumental in laying the foundation for the Global Network's numerous achievements over the past 12 years. Achievements include, but are not limited to: o Initial large-scale individual site studies conducted during the first cycle, which found that training birth attendants in neonatal resuscitation and essential newborn care reduced neonatal mortality and morbidity from birth asphyxia and neonatal infections and that oral misoprostol reduced postpartum hemorrhage o The development of "common" trials, conducted by at least 3 sites, which led to increased collaboration and scientific capacity building, and to numerous findings, including that local instructor-training in newborn resuscitation and essential newborn care significantly reduced perinatal deaths and was cost-effective o A current Global Network comprised of 7 multidisciplinary research units existing in India, Pakistan, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya and Guatemala with the aim of addressing the three major causes of perinatal morbidity and mortality: asphyxia, prematurity, and infection o The maintenance of a detailed birth registry, which enrolls mothers early in pregnancy and has provided outcome data on 340,000 mother-infant pairs o Publishing of 170 manuscripts in 10 years, almost half with a scientist from the developing world as first author o Tremendous independent research capacity evidenced by funding of global collaborators by the World Health Organization, the World Bank, the government of France, the Thrasher Foundation, and the Church of the Latter Day Saints, among others • NICHD, with the support of the BMGF, is currently working on an integrated approach to infection, noncommunicable diseases, food insecurity, and the dual burden of over- and undernutrition through the following projects: o The Biomarkers of Nutrition for Development (BOND) program, which aims to develop a unified, scientific approach to select biomarkers for assessing the function and effect of diet and nutrition on health and diseases in individuals and populations (~$450K) o The Iron and Malaria project, which aims to identify safe and effective interventions (such as iron supplementation) to prevent iron deficiency and related health problems in areas where malaria and other infections are common ($9.4M) 4. Fogarty International Center (FIC) is supported by the BMGF as well.