President Obama is redirecting $100 million in pursuit of finding a cure to HIV, the Associated Press reports.
"The United States should be at the forefront of new discoveries into how to put HIV into long-term remission without requiring lifelong therapies, or better yet, eliminate it completely," Obama said Monday at a White House event marking World AIDS Day, which was Sunday.
Health leaders and philanthropists gathered in Washington to figure out how to replenish the global health fund that fights AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, the three biggest killers in low-income countries, AP reports.
Obama told gatherers that the U.S. would continue matching contributions to the Geneva-based Global Fund on a one-to-two funding ratio set by Congress, and that over the next three years the U.S. would contribute up to $5 billion.
"Don't leave our money on the table," Obama said Monday.
The Global Fund hopes to raise $15 billion to cover its programs from 2014 to 2016. The fund supports HIV therapy for more than 5 million people, as well as treatments for tuberculosis and malaria.
Also Monday, billionaire Bill Gates said he planned to nearly double his foundation's contribution to this next round of the Global Fund, to $500 million. Gates had already pledged $300 million, but would match an additional $200 million from private sources in an effort to draw in new donors, AP reports.
"We're deeply disappointed" in cuts to the National Institute of Health's budget, Gates said.
Earlier this year, NIH lost $1.5 billion of its $31 billion, and is scheduled to lose another $600 million from a second round of sequester cuts that in turn limits how much the NIH can devote to different diseases.
"Investing in research has huge paybacks," Gates said.
Read more at Associated Press.