Melinda French Gates and Regina Dugan Launch Groundbreaking $100 Million Initiative for Women’s Health

In a bold move to address one of society’s most persistent inequalities, Melinda French Gates and Regina Dugan have joined forces to launch a $100 million partnership focused on women’s health research. Announced at the Forbes Power Women’s Summit, this collaboration between French Gates’ Pivotal Ventures and Dugan’s Wellcome Leap represents a watershed moment in the fight for women’s health equity. “I want to see women step into equal power and influence at every level of society,” says French Gates. “But there is no path to that future if women are having to fight unwinnable battles just to receive basic healthcare.” This conviction drives their ambitious initiative, which will fund two new research and development programs launching in 2026 that target conditions disproportionately affecting women, including cardiovascular disease, mental health issues, and autoimmune disorders—areas that have historically received minimal attention despite their enormous impact on women’s lives.

The statistics revealing the disparities in women’s health research are staggering. Only 1% of global health research beyond cancer focuses on conditions unique to women. Despite women comprising nearly 80% of those suffering from autoimmune diseases, effective treatments remain elusive. Menopause, which affects half the population, is considered in fewer than 1% of studies on aging. These gaps in knowledge and treatment have real consequences: women spend 25% more of their lives in poor health than men. The ripple effects extend far beyond individual suffering, affecting families, workplaces, and entire economies. This initiative recognizes that women’s health is not merely a women’s issue but a fundamental societal and economic concern. As French Gates points out, closing the health gap between men and women could add at least $1 trillion to global GDP annually by 2040—but the human cost is far more profound than any economic calculation.

What makes this partnership particularly promising is the complementary strengths of its leaders. French Gates brings decades of experience in global health advocacy and has already committed over $1 billion through Pivotal Ventures to expand women’s power worldwide. This latest initiative marks her most significant investment in women’s health to date. Dugan, meanwhile, has built her career on accelerating breakthrough innovations. As the first woman to lead DARPA and later directing advanced research teams at tech giants like Google and Facebook, she has consistently demonstrated an ability to achieve results in years rather than decades. Together, they’re challenging the notion that progress in women’s health must be incremental, instead pursuing solutions with unprecedented urgency and ambition.

For French Gates, this work is deeply personal and politically urgent. “I experienced the Dobbs decision as a call to action,” she says, referring to the Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade. “It is unthinkable to me that my two granddaughters could have fewer rights than I did.” Her concern was reinforced during a trip to Louisiana, where she witnessed firsthand the devastating consequences of restrictive healthcare policies on women’s lives. From preventable stillbirths to the criminalization of essential obstetric medications, French Gates saw how politics is compromising women’s health and safety. This partnership represents her commitment to ensuring that progress moves forward rather than backward, focusing on scientific advancement rather than political battles. By investing in research and innovation, French Gates aims to create a future where women’s health needs are met with the same seriousness and urgency as men’s.

Dugan’s perspective is equally impassioned but grounded in scientific possibility. “For too long, women have been told to endure what should be treatable, to accept conditions as ‘mysteries’ rather than problems worth solving,” she states. With Wellcome Leap’s impressive network spanning 160 institutions across six continents and connecting more than 1.5 million researchers, Dugan brings formidable implementation capacity to the partnership. The organization was founded by the Wellcome Trust in 2020 to pursue health breakthroughs at speed, applying a DARPA-inspired model to human health challenges. With this new collaboration, Wellcome Leap’s total investment in women’s health research rises to $250 million as it works toward an ambitious goal of raising $1 billion in philanthropic capital. Dugan’s message is clear: “Breakthroughs in women’s health are not a matter of chance, they are a matter of choice. It is time. Women have waited long enough.”

This $100 million initiative is designed to be a catalyst rather than an endpoint. By demonstrating that neglected women’s health conditions can be addressed far more quickly than conventional wisdom suggests, French Gates and Dugan hope to inspire a broader movement. They invite policymakers, philanthropists, investors, and scientists to join them in treating women’s health as the urgent priority it is. Their partnership challenges the notion that the current disparities in women’s health are inevitable or acceptable. Instead, they envision a future where women’s health moves from the margins to the center of medical research and healthcare delivery—not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because the cost of continued delay is one that no society can afford. Through this groundbreaking collaboration, French Gates and Dugan are not just funding research; they’re reimagining what’s possible when women’s health receives the attention, resources, and urgency it deserves.