Maike Scharp

Deputy Director, Diagnostics & Lead, Women’s Health R&D Ecosystem at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Speaker

Dr. Maike Scharp is Deputy Director of Diagnostics at the Gates Foundation. In this role, she leads the foundation’s strategy on diagnostics and diagnostic medical devices and oversees a portfolio of investments related to end-to-end diagnostic product and platform development with a throughline to patient impact in low and middle income countries. She also leads the foundation’s efforts to strengthen the Women’s Health R&D ecosystem within the Gender Equality division and is chair for the Innovation Equity Forum (IEF), a collaborative partnership created by BMGF and the US National Institutes of Health with over 250 women’s health experts and stakeholders across diverse sectors and geographies. In October 2023, the IEF released the Women’s Health Innovation Opportunity Map 2023, a collaborative framework, outlining 50 equitable, high-return opportunities across the R&D continuum to maximize research and innovation, investments, and global action in women’s health. Prior to her current role, Maike was a Deputy Director in the Gates Foundation’s Strategy Office and before that, a Partner at the Boston Consulting Group, where she led extensive efforts in strategy development, portfolio prioritization, operating model innovation, data & analytics, and change management across biopharma commercial, R&D and Global Health clients. She also worked as a physician in radio-oncology and palliative care and spent time in Uganda working closely with the Ministry of Health through the Clinton Health Access Initiative. Maike holds a Medical Doctorate from Heidelberg University as well as a Master of Science in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She has been awarded the American Medical Women’s Association’s Presidential Reward for her work to strengthen the women’s health R&D ecosystem.