Latin America carries 8% of the global disease burden yet attracts less than 3% of global clinical research investment. The Angeles Paganelli Foundation builds the networks and mechanisms that transform that gap into a concrete opportunity for researchers, institutions, and investors.
More clinical research in Latin America is not merely a scientific aspiration — it is a public health decision that saves lives and generates prosperity. The Angeles Paganelli Foundation builds the bridges that make that investment possible.
The region combines unique conditions — epidemiological diversity, willing patient populations, growing hospital infrastructure, and modernizing regulatory frameworks — yet lacks the institutional and financial scaffolding to capture its potential. Closing that gap is the Foundation's purpose.
The global clinical research market moves more than $140 billion a year. Latin America captures a marginal fraction — not for lack of scientific talent, but for lack of institutional infrastructure and networks.
Global clinical research market estimatesBetween 2007 and 2023, 90% of global health research resources funded by high-income countries went to their own domestic institutions — leaving middle-income countries at the margins of discoveries that affect them most.
Devex / Impact Global Health, Sept. 2025Only 10% of global health research addresses diseases responsible for 90% of the disease burden in developing countries. Reversing this ratio in Latin America is the Foundation's central purpose.
Global Forum on Health Research / NCBIAccording to the Lancet Commission on Investing in Health, reducing child, maternal, and infectious disease mortality to universally low levels would generate benefits 9 to 20 times the cost of investment in middle-income countries — like those in Latin America.
Lancet Commission on Investing in HealthBiomedical innovations targeting neglected diseases will generate $49.7 trillion in net societal benefits by 2040. The majority of that impact will be concentrated where the disease burden is greatest: Latin America, Africa, and South Asia.
Impact Global Health — The Ripple Effect, 2025Health economics research shows that advances in health contributed approximately one third of the potential economic growth of Latin American economies over recent decades. Clinical research is not a cost — it is a strategic asset.
Mayer-Foulkes / ECLACMexico illustrates with clarity the potential that exists throughout Latin America. With a strong medical scientific community and a modernized regulatory framework — including harmonization with international standards (FDA, EMA, ICH) and the strengthening of Research Ethics Committees — the country is building the infrastructure needed to attract world-class clinical research. The capabilities, mechanisms, and networks the Foundation develops in Mexico are designed to be directly replicated in Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and across the region.
The Foundation does not simply connect resources with projects — it builds the institutional infrastructure that allows clinical research to happen with ethical rigor, competitive speed, and genuine integration with the global pharmaceutical industry.
Accredited RECs are the institutional gateway to high-level clinical research. The Foundation accompanies hospitals and institutions through the full lifecycle of their committee — from the first session to integration with international studies.
We train the multidisciplinary teams that comprise ethics committees — physicians, legal experts, bioethics specialists, and community representatives — under the highest international standards, through certified and continuously updated programs.
The Foundation provides direct funding so that hospitals of any size can participate in the network, regardless of their current resources. World-class clinical research should not be the privilege of large institutions alone.
The best committees are built through real practice. The Foundation provides practical support during the most critical phases of a committee's launch, ensuring every decision has the technical and ethical backing it requires.
An accredited REC operating under international standards is a business asset for any hospital. The Foundation facilitates ethical and transparent connections between its member institutions and international Contract Research Organizations (CROs) and pharmaceutical companies.
The Foundation is building the first Latin American ecosystem of interconnected Research Ethics Committees — sharing protocols, digital platforms, and best practices among public, private, university, and health institute hospitals across the region.
Decades of data are unequivocal: investment in health research in middle-income countries generates the greatest returns in the world — in lives saved, in stronger economies, and in resilience against future pandemics.
in societal return for every dollar invested in neglected disease research — the most compelling argument for investing in clinical research across Latin America.
lives that biomedical innovations against neglected diseases could save between 2000 and 2040 — if investment in research is maintained and expanded where it is needed most.
Sources: Impact Global Health "The Ripple Effect" (2025); Lancet Commission on Investing in Health
The Angeles Paganelli Foundation seeks to work alongside a global ecosystem of organizations that share the conviction that health research in developing countries is one of the most transformative investments humanity can make.
The world's largest philanthropic health organization. Funds research, vaccines, medicines, and health systems in low- and middle-income countries, with a focus on reducing inequity in access to medical innovation.
London-based scientific foundation funding global health research and biomedical innovation, with growing emphasis on building local research capacity in developing countries.
Partnership between the European Union and sub-Saharan African countries accelerating clinical development of new interventions against high-impact diseases. A regional alliance model directly replicable in Latin America.
International alliance mobilizing resources for health programs in low- and middle-income countries, working with governments, civil society, and the pharmaceutical industry to maximize impact.
Connects funders with high-impact global health initiatives in support of WHO's mission. Its model of linking those with resources to those with solutions embodies the spirit of the Angeles Paganelli Foundation.
The Oswaldo Cruz Foundation demonstrates that Latin American countries can and must lead health research that directly affects them. The regional benchmark for translational research and vaccine production.
International collaboration funding innovative solutions to global health challenges, with growing emphasis on projects led by researchers in middle- and low-income countries.
A $225 million initiative to save 100 million lives by preventing cardiovascular disease and epidemics in low- and middle-income countries. The benchmark for coordinated, high-scale philanthropy.
The Foundation was born from Angeles Paganelli's commitment to global health. We act as a connector: linking those who can invest with those who can discover, and building the institutional infrastructure that turns that connection into real, lasting results.
Our vision is a Latin America where world-class clinical research happens where it is most needed — not only in countries that have historically had the capital to fund it.
We build and operate networks of accredited Research Ethics Committees (RECs) that connect hospitals, universities, health institutes, and research centers under shared international standards.
We train, certify, and accompany the teams that make ethical and rigorous clinical research possible — from committee members to institutional administrators.
We link philanthropists, pharmaceutical companies, and international organizations with Latin American institutions that have the scientific capacity and ethical framework to deploy that investment with real impact.
The mechanisms we develop — accreditation, training, digital platforms, industry linkage — are designed to be adopted by hospitals and institutions across Latin America.
If you share the conviction that science made in Latin America can save more Latin American lives, there is a place for you in this network — as an institution, as an investor, or as a strategic partner.