In 2nd paragraph, Gates Foundation corrects statement by its spokesperson to say that the spend was on R&D, not across all of women's health.

By Jennifer Rigby

LONDON, Aug 4 (Reuters) - The Gates Foundation will spend $2.5 billion by 2030 on women’s health, it said on Monday, with founder Bill Gates saying the area, including conditions from preeclampsia to menopause, had been neglected for too long.

The investment is among its first big commitments since Gates announced earlier this year that he would give away his $200 billion fortune by 2045. It is around one-third more than the Foundation spent on women’s and maternal health research and development over the last five years.

“Women’s health continues to be ignored, underfunded and sidelined. Too many women still die from preventable causes or live in poor health,” Gates said in a statement. “That must change.”

The work will look at deeply under-researched areas that affect hundreds of millions of women in both high- and low-income countries, from preeclampsia and gestational diabetes to heavy menstrual bleeding, endometriosis and menopause.

Investment will focus on five key areas: obstetric care and maternal immunization; maternal health and nutrition; gynaecological and menstrual health; contraceptive innovation; and sexually transmitted infection.

The aim is to kickstart research, develop products, and ensure equitable access to them worldwide.

The Foundation’s head of gender equality, Dr. Anita Zaidi, said that the field had been held back in part because of bias and a lack of data on key issues, such as how drugs cross into the uterus.

“If you look at the literature, there may be only 10 women who’ve been studied, ever,” she told Reuters. “We don’t even have the answers to these basic questions.”

Just one percent of the healthcare research and innovation spend went to female-specific conditions beyond cancer, a 2021 analysis by McKinsey & Co found.

Zaidi acknowledged that the $2.5 billion was a “drop in the bucket” compared with what was needed and called on others to step in, including the private sector, philanthropists and governments.

Gates' ex-wife, philanthropist Melinda French Gates, has also invested in women's health since leaving the Foundation last year.

(Reporting by Jennifer Rigby; Editing by David Holmes)

((Jennifer.Rigby@thomsonreuters.com;))