The Global Health Innovative Technology (GHIT) Fund has announced a new round of funding worth about 1.06 billion yen, or roughly 6.8 million US dollars, for nine research and development projects tackling malaria, neglected tropical diseases and emerging infectious diseases such as Ebola disease. The announcement, made in Tokyo on October 29, 2026, spreads the money across drugs, vaccines and diagnostics, with a clear emphasis on tools that can be used where laboratories are scarce and outbreaks move fast.
The GHIT Fund is a Japan-based international public-private partnership formed between the Government of Japan, pharmaceutical companies, the Gates Foundation, Wellcome and the United Nations Development Programme. Its stated mission is to support new drugs, vaccines and diagnostics for malaria, tuberculosis and neglected tropical diseases that affect vulnerable and underserved populations. As of September 30, 2026, its portfolio held 53 ongoing projects, including 26 discovery projects, 14 preclinical projects and 13 clinical trials, with total investment since 2013 reaching 48.1 billion yen, or about 305 million dollars.
Key Takeaways
- The GHIT Fund announced about 1.06 billion yen, roughly 6.8 million dollars, for nine projects covering malaria, neglected tropical diseases and emerging infections including Ebola disease.
- The largest single share, about 2.9 million dollars, goes to a rapid diagnostic test for trachoma, a bacterial eye infection that can cause blindness.
- Three Ebola projects, worth about 1.3 million dollars combined, aim to speed up diagnosis of the Bundibugyo virus in field settings without sophisticated laboratory equipment.
A Rapid Test for Trachoma, a Preventable Cause of Blindness
The largest investment in the round is about 450 million yen, or 2.9 million dollars, for the clinical validation, regulatory approval and programmatic launch of a rapid diagnostic test for trachoma. Trachoma is a neglected tropical disease caused by infection with the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis. It remains a public health problem and is responsible for blindness or visual impairment in approximately 1.9 million people globally, while nearly 92 million people live in endemic areas and remain at risk of blindness.
Trachoma control programmes currently rely on mass drug administration of antibiotics, which creates a practical problem for health workers in the field: without a reliable point-of-care test, it is hard to decide when to start or stop mass treatment in a given area. The GHIT-backed project, led by Drugs and Diagnostics for Tropical Diseases, Medical and Biological Laboratories, The Carter Center and Big Eye Diagnostics, aims to close that gap with a test that meets the World Health Organization’s target product profile. Supported by the GHIT Fund since 2024, the project is now being pushed toward clinical evaluations, regulatory approvals and programmatic launch, with the aim of a launch decision in 2028.
The practical value of such a test is straightforward. A test that works on dried blood spots or serum in a laboratory, and potentially on fingerstick blood near the point of care, would let programmes confirm where infection is still circulating instead of treating whole populations on schedule alone. That matters because trachoma programmes operate in some of the world’s most resource-limited settings, where every round of mass treatment costs money, staff time and community goodwill.
Faster Ebola Diagnosis After a Deadly Outbreak
The second major block of funding responds to an ongoing emergency. The World Health Organization declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on May 17, 2026, in response to an outbreak of Ebola disease caused by the Bundibugyo virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. An outbreak with over 4,500 deaths as of October 21, 2026, has been reported in the DRC, according to the announcement, which cites the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Rapid diagnosis is essential to prevent transmission, and the GHIT Fund has committed about 210 million yen, or 1.3 million dollars, across three projects for rapid diagnosis of Ebola disease. One, led by Medical and Biological Laboratories and Nagasaki University, is developing a device that combines RT-LAMP with nucleic acid chromatography for rapid screening of the Bundibugyo virus, designed to be used in healthcare facilities and community clinics without the sophisticated equipment that conventional PCR testing requires. A second, led by Saitama University, is developing and field-testing a lateral flow immunoassay for the Bundibugyo strain in the DRC, designed as a portable kit that frontline healthcare workers could use without laboratory infrastructure, with results in less than 15 minutes. A third, led by Eiken Chemical, is developing a LAMP-based assay for detection of the Bundibugyo virus.
The logic running through all three is the same: in an outbreak, the time between a suspected case and a confirmed result decides whether contacts can be isolated, treatment can start and transmission chains can be broken. That urgency is familiar from recent coverage of Ebola responses in the region, including Kenya’s release of its first Ebola contacts from quarantine and new US funding for a single-dose Ebola vaccine, which together show how diagnosis, vaccination and contact follow-up have to move at the same speed.
In an outbreak, the time between a suspected case and a confirmed result decides whether contacts can be isolated and transmission chains can be broken.
Five More Projects, From Lassa Fever to Dengue
Beyond trachoma and Ebola, the GHIT Fund will invest about 400 million yen, or roughly 2.5 million dollars, in five further research projects. One, led by the University of Osaka and the University of Texas Medical Branch, is working on a bivalent mRNA-lipid nanoparticle vaccine against Lassa virus, which is widespread in West Africa. Another, led by PATH and iBody, is developing strategic immunoglobulins and a highly accurate rapid antigen test for Nipah virus and Hendra virus, two zoonotic pathogens described as posing a risk of severe outbreaks with potential Disease X pandemic capacity.
The remaining three projects target familiar but still neglected threats. Eisai and the Medicines for Malaria Venture are working to improve the antimalarial potency of antisense oligonucleotides using bioinformatics and machine-learning algorithms. Nagasaki University, Eisai, the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative and the University of Dundee are pursuing innovative approaches to improve the success rate in Chagas disease drug discovery. And a team led by VisGene with the University of Miyazaki, Mahidol University and partners in Peru is developing a rapid whole-blood multiplex antigen test for serotype-specific dengue and chikungunya detection, two mosquito-borne diseases that often circulate together and are difficult to tell apart clinically.
Taken together, the five projects show where the funding gap is widest. These are diseases that rarely attract the commercial investment seen in wealthier markets, yet they shape daily life for millions of people. Diagnostic tools in particular have been underfunded relative to their importance, a point underlined by the wider push to bring laboratory-quality testing closer to patients, as seen in Roche’s benchtop lab analyser for smaller clinics.
- Total new GHIT investment announced October 29, 2026: about 1.06 billion yen, or 6.8 million dollars, across nine projects.
- Trachoma rapid diagnostic test: about 450 million yen (2.9 million dollars), aiming for programmatic launch in 2028.
- Ebola rapid diagnosis: about 210 million yen (1.3 million dollars) across three Bundibugyo virus projects.
- Five further projects: about 400 million yen (2.5 million dollars) covering Lassa fever, Nipah and Hendra viruses, malaria, Chagas disease, dengue and chikungunya.
- GHIT portfolio as of September 30, 2026: 53 ongoing projects, with 305 million dollars invested since 2013.
What to Watch Next
What to watch next is whether the trachoma test completes its verification and validation studies and regulatory review on the path toward a 2028 launch, whether the three Ebola diagnostics prove usable in field settings in the DRC and Uganda, and whether the Lassa vaccine, Nipah and Hendra tests and the malaria, Chagas, dengue and chikungunya projects advance from their current development stages. The funding announced today does not by itself deliver any of these tools to patients, but it does decide which ones get the chance to be tested, validated and, if the evidence holds, put into the hands of health workers who need them most.