Wellcome Trust
The Wellcome Trust is a not-for-profit trust based in London . It was founded in 1936 to manage the legacy of Burroughs Wellcome & Company co- founder Henry Wellcome . The declared aim is to “promote research to improve human and animal health”. It is the second richest foundation in the world to support medical research after the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation , and in 2018 had assets of 26 billion euros.
Organization and administration
The Wellcome Trust administration is based in the Gibbs Building , owned by Roger Gibbs (former Chairman of the Board of Directors from 1983 and 1999) in the London Borough of Camden . The Chairman of the Board of Directors since 2015 has been Eliza Manningham-Buller, Baroness Manningham-Buller ; in 2008 she was appointed governor of the organization. The director of the Wellcome Trust since 2013 is the infectiologist Jeremy Farrar.
Holdings
Until June 1992, the Wellcome Trust was the majority shareholder with 73.6% of the then pharmaceutical company Wellcome plc with the then high-turnover drugs Zovirax and Retrovir . In July 1992 the Foundation sold 270 million shares valued at £ 2.16 billion , reducing its stake in Wellcome plc to 42% and in 1995 sold all of the remaining shares in the pharmaceutical company.
The foundation has a 14% stake in the construction and operating company Diamond Light Source Ltd , which commissioned the Diamond Light Source synchrotron radiation source in Oxfordshire , England in 2007 .
Funded projects
The Wellcome Trust invests over £ 400 million a year in biomedical research, the majority of which is basic research with no direct application. Wellcome Trust funds have contributed significantly to the following activities:
- Sequencing of the human genome by the Sanger Institute at Cambridge University
- Development of the antimalarial active ingredient artemisinin
- Foundation of the "UK- Biobank "
- the peptidase database MEROPS
- Construction of the Wellcome wing of the Science Museum in London
The Wellcome Trust also sponsors the Wellcome Trust Center for the History of Medicine at University College London and is one of the supporting organizations of the Francis Crick Institute .
literature
- Hall, AR & Bembridge, BA Physic and philanthropy: a history of the Wellcome Trust 1936–1986 . Cambridge (UK): Cambridge University Press, 1986. ISBN 0-521-32639-7
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Richard Friebe: Invisible Ink, Pharmaceutical Representatives and Billions for Research. In: Der Tagesspiegel . March 6, 2018, accessed May 2, 2020 .
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20150924235446/http://blog.wellcome.ac.uk/2011/07/01/75th-stories-rich-diversity-roger-gibbs-and-the-trusts -endowment /
- ↑ https://wellcome.ac.uk/about-us/governance/board-governors
- ↑ https://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-275899;jsessionid=C4DA3ADC0113197DE22909A55161BA0A
- ↑ Jakob Simmank : Jeremy Farrar: "Dark days will come, even if the second wave fails to appear". In: zeit.de from April 28, 2020.
- ↑ Handelsblatt No. 121 of June 26, 1992, p. 17
- ↑ Handelsblatt No. 143 of July 28, 1992, p. 17
- ↑ Richard Friebe: Invisible Ink, Pharmaceutical Representatives and Billions for Research , tagesspiegel.de of March 6, 2018
- ↑ https://www.diamond.ac.uk/Home/News/LatestNews/03-07-13.html
- ↑ See for example Samuel Arthur Joseph Moorat: Catalog of Western manuscripts on medicine and science in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library. 2 volumes. London 1962-1973 (= Publications of the Wellcome Historical Library. Catalog series. MS 1-2).