Tadataka "Tachi" Yamada's decision to resign as
president of the Global Health Program at the Bill
and Melinda Gates Foundation provides an opportunity for the foundation
to refocus its global health programs. His successor's primary challenges will
include deciding which compounds should go into clinical trials and making the
organization's culture less opaque and bureaucratic.
The next global health president
should have the skills and toughness to streamline the foundation's bureaucracy
and to make it more transparent to potential collaborators, senior officials
from Gates-funded organizations told BioCentury. Most did not want to be
identified because of fears that critical remarks could endanger their ability
to obtain future grants from the foundation.