Philanthropist Melinda French Gates has unveiled a $100 million initiative aimed at tackling the gender gap in medical research, committing $50 million herself through her organisation Pivotal.

The funding, announced on Wednesday, will be channelled into a new women’s health fund set up in partnership with the non-profit Wellcome Leap. Together, the two groups will invest to accelerate research into conditions that impact women differently or disproportionately compared to men. These include cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disorders, and mental health.

French Gates highlighted the funding imbalance in the sector, noting that just 1% of pharmaceutical research spending in 2024 went towards women’s health beyond cancer. She described the need for investment as urgent, given the toll of conditions long neglected by mainstream medical research.

French Gates, who left the Gates Foundation in 2024 after decades of advocacy in global health, said she welcomed the foundation’s separate pledge last month to spend $2.5 billion on overlooked women’s health issues by 2030. She added she hoped future collaboration between funders would help to close the gap more quickly.

Pivotal and Wellcome said in a joint statement that women should no longer have to spend more years in poor health than men or face higher risks of being misdiagnosed with conditions such as heart attacks. They also raised questions about why women account for 80% of autoimmune disorder cases and two-thirds of Alzheimer’s patients.

Regina Dugan, chief executive of Wellcome Leap, added: “For too long, women have been told to endure what should be treatable, to accept conditions as ‘mysteries’ rather than problems worth solving.” Since its establishment in 2020, Wellcome Leap has already invested $150 million in women’s health research.

The partnership will select two flagship projects by the end of 2026 and aims to deliver results within three to five years, according to the founders.