Gates Foundation invests up to $35M to research pregnancy complications

The Gates Foundation has committed up to $35 million to ProFound Therapeutics to advance research into preeclampsia and eclampsia, two serious pregnancy-related conditions. ProFound, based in Massachusetts, also plans to develop an AI tool specifically focused on the conditions, which can damage organs and cause seizures, generally after 20 weeks of pregnancy. The World Health Organization estimates that preeclampsia affects about 3% to 8% of women who give birth, while eclampsia, a much more severe progression, affects about 1.4%. “Conditions like preeclampsia and eclampsia remain chronically underdiagnosed and undertreated,” says Herbert “Skip” Virgin, MD, PhD, head of AI-Enabled Cures Frontier Accelerator at the Gates Foundation. Only about 1% of global health care research and development is directed toward female-specific conditions beyond cancer.