India Health Fund, a Tata Trusts initiative and Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), a Public Sector Enterprise under Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, create India’s first public-private partnership fund which will finance the development of diagnostics and digital tools to tackle infectious diseases relevant for India and other developing countries, towards bettering equity and access to healthcare.

The newly launched initiative commits INR 44 Crores of pooled funding to be deployed over a period of 5 years, along with complementary strengths of IHF and BIRAC network and partnerships across public and private sectors, enabling innovations (early-, mid- and late-stage) to scale their lab-to-market journey and reach the hands of those who need them the most.

India has the world’s highest incidence of communicable diseases. Infection and mortality from tuberculosis and antimicrobial resistance are the highest in the world, malaria burden remains high and there is a growing burden of other vector borne diseases like dengue, with climate change compounding the toll.

Science and technology-based innovations have the potential to tackle the burden. However, financing the development of these urgently needed tools for infectious diseases has remained fragmented and inadequate, with most funding coming from the government.

The partnership is set to multiply impact and funding in the neglected area of infectious diseases by supporting digital tools, diagnostics and decision-support solutions for infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, vector borne diseases, antimicrobial resistance, and beyond.

The MoU was signed last month during the inaugural session of the Global Bio India 2023 summit, Delhi in the presence of Hon’ble Union Minister of State (Independent Charge), Ministry of Science & Technology Dr. Jitendra Singh.