About The Catalysis Foundation for Health
The Catalysis Foundation for Health, founded in 2007 as a 501 (c) (3) private operating foundation, is dedicated to facilitating the development and delivery of diagnostics to address life-threatening infectious diseases and chronic conditions that are endemic in the developing world.
The Catalysis Foundation brings a unique depth of diagnostics’ industry experience, business knowledge and product engineering expertise to ensure that diagnostic tests are designed, developed and delivered to meet the requirements for consistent usage by local health practitioners in target developing countries.
The Catalysis Foundation uses a three-part strategy for guiding diagnostics innovation in underserved markets:
- We begin by understanding the unmet clinical needs, commercial requirements, stakeholder relationships and infrastructure limitations present in target regions;
- Then, utilizing our knowledge of global health initiatives and experience in delivering properly designed diagnostic products, we determine the necessary product requirements;
- Finally, we establish a coalition of experts representing infectious disease, global public health, government and non-government organizations, academic institutions, the pharmaceutical industry, and funders to accelerate the transition from discovery to delivery of appropriate diagnostics to address gaps in healthcare.
Catalysis’ first program is focused on improving Tuberculosis (TB) diagnostics to better determine therapy effectiveness. TB represents a significant global unmet need; currently more than one-third of the world’s population is infected with the TB bacterium, and 90 percent of all TB cases and deaths occur in developing countries. In 2009, Catalysis received a $5 million, three-year grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to discover new Tuberculosis (TB) biomarkers that can be used to develop diagnostic tests for improving disease and therapy monitoring and as aids in developing more effective TB treatments. Read More