The Chair of UNITAID, Celso Amorim, met Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet on Thursday to discuss UNITAID’s expanding grant-giving activities in support of global health goals.

Chile is a major donor to UNITAID, and has given  about  US$35 million to the organization since it was founded in 2006 through a levy on airline tickets. Chile is one of ten countries to have introduced the levy to raise money for global poverty reduction.

“Chile is a key partner of UNITAID, and its leadership to promote innovation and access to better and cheaper medicines is remarkable,” said Celso Amorim in a statement issued after the meeting at the Moneda Palace, the seat of the Chilean President.

UNITAID has launched a number of ambitious new initiatives with its partners  in 2016,  ranging from programs to improve diagnostics and treatments for hepatitis C virus (HCV) for those in need to introducing child-friendly tuberculosis (TB) medicines in Kenya and other sub-Saharan countries.

UNITAID was established in 2006 by Brazil, Chile, France, Norway and the United Kingdom to provide an innovative approach to global health. It plays an important part in the global effort to defeat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, by facilitating and speeding up availability of improved health tools, including medicines and diagnostics.