Global pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc. and the Pfizer Foundation are donating $2 million over the next four years to the University Health System's Center for Global Health.
The grant will fund a new exchange program of post-doctoral fellows and students between the University and several international partners to conduct research on global health issues.
At least two fellows from the University will be able to travel abroad for up to one year to study infectious diseases, clinical microbiology, epidemiology and biostatistics. The same number of participants from the global partner nations will be able to come to the University to study patient care and prevention of infectious diseases.
"The major purpose of this program is to foster and enhance bidirectional research training for treating infectious diseases like AIDS and malaria," said W. Michael Scheld, director of the Pfizer Initiative and professor of infectious diseases at the University.
International participants will return to their home countries and educate others about their research as well as global health and health policy issues.
"We want to try to prevent a brain drain from the participating countries," Scheld said. "We don't want the international participants to stay here but return to their native countries and apply what they have learned."
A similar program has existed in some form at the Center for Global Health since the 1970s, and this is part of what attracted Pfizer to the University, Scheld said. So far, 100 percent of international students studying in the program at the University have gone back to their home countries to work.
"The Pfizer grant multiplies our resources tremendously so we can support more research abroad in infectious disease," said April Ballard, program coordinator at the Center for Global Health. "It is really thrilling for us, and we are very pleased to be able to bring an interdisciplinary focus to health."
In addition to the exchange program, the Pfizer Initiative will fund six- to eight-week study abroad programs for 20 to 30 University students from a variety of disciplines to study global health issues.
Pfizer Inc. is the world's largest research-based pharmaceutical company. In 2003, Pfizer's philanthropic donations totaled nearly $700 million.
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