Better Health, Brighter Future
Advancing the Evidence Base for Child Survival and Health Around the World
The first Chair at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) to be fully endowed by a company.
The first Chair at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) to be fully endowed by a company.
The Program: Takeda Chair in Global Child Health
Partner: London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)
Budget: £3 million
Term: Perpetual
Launch: 2019
Area: Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia
Messages from CEO Christophe Weber and LSHTM Director Professor Peter Piot
On May 16, 2019, top researchers, policy officials, and industry and academic leaders from the UK and Japan came together at the Japanese Embassy in London.
More than five million children under five die each year, half in the first month of life, in large part due to childhood infections such as pneumonia and diarrhea. While the vast majority of these deaths are preventable, key research gaps remain. The Takeda Chair in Global Child Health—the first chair at LSHTM to be fully endowed by a company—will bridge research, public policy, and healthcare delivery by developing thought leadership in and advance the evidence base for child survival and health through innovative research, including on vaccines, neonatal care, under-nutrition, and infection diagnostics and treatments.
Leaders Driving Change: Peter Piot, Director, LSHTM
Biography: Peter Piot, who co-discovered the Ebola virus in Zaire in 1976, is Director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. He was founding Executive Director of UNAIDS and Under Secretary-General of the United Nations and has served in numerous other international and academic leadership roles. He has received many awards, including the Prince Mahidol Award for Public Health and the 2013 Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize for Medical Research. He was named a 2014 TIME Person of the Year (The Ebola Fighters) and has published over 500 scientific articles and 16 books.