Who Gets Bill Gates' Money?

So where does all that Gates Foundation money go?

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation just announced commitments of $10 billion over 10 years to develop and ship vaccines to poor countries to help curb all those preventable deaths. While much of Gates' money goes to world health organizations, universities, and other nonprofit groups, companies also get a piece.

Millions of children die every year from illnesses that could easily be prevented with vaccines. Pneumonia, for instance, is one of the biggest killers. Since companies aren't in the charity business, Gates provides financial incentives.

Last year, Gates teamed with the governments of Italy, Canada, Norway, Russia, and the U.K. and committed $1.5 billion to purchase pneumonia vaccines. Supply agreements with vaccine makers are expected to be announced soon.

Major pharmaceuticals companies already get money. Gates gave about $169 million to an organization developing a malaria vaccination with GlaxoSmithKline Plc in 2008. Malaria kills thousands of African children every day, the foundation says.

“We must make this the decade of vaccines,” Bill Gates says in a statement today.

VaxGen Inc., the maker of an HIV vaccine used in a large U.S. government trial in Thailand last year, has depended on Gates for much of its funding. The trial initially gave researchers hope that an AIDS vaccine combination benefited patients, but that excitement was tempered after additional data showed less-promising results.

Gates gives to other types of health care companies too.

Cupron Inc., a North Carolina manufacturer of fabrics that fend off microbes, got a $100,000 grant from Gates last year to develop a breast-milk shield that prevents transmission of HIV.