Gates Foundation’s Size Poses Challenges to Drug Makers

The billions of dollars the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is donating to efforts to improve global health are changing the nature of drug discovery and posing big challenges to the world’s top drug makers, according to a study released today by IMS Health, a Norwalk, Conn., pharmaceutical information group, reports the Reuters news service.

IMS Health said drug makers could end up collaborating with Gates and that that might help their public images. On the other hand, it said, they could lose some money if they don’t have full control over a drug’s release, it said.