New partnership initiatives from Gilead Sciences and Johnson & Johnson underscore how pharmaceutical and medtech companies are using cross-sector collaborations to address large-scale healthcare challenges, ranging from neglected tropical diseases to artificial intelligence-enabled surgical systems.

Gilead expands WHO partnership to combat visceral leishmaniasis

Gilead Sciences announced a renewed five-year collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) aimed at accelerating efforts to eliminate visceral leishmaniasis (VL), also known as kala-azar, one of the world’s deadliest parasitic diseases.¹

Under the agreement, Gilead is set to provide more than 400,000 vials of AmBisome (amphotericin B) liposome for injection and contribute $9.2 million in financial support through 2030.¹ The initiative is expected to focus heavily on East Africa, where disease burden remains high, while also supporting programs in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Eritrea, India, Kenya, Nepal, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda, Yemen, Chad, and Djibouti.

VL, a sandfly-borne disease that attacks internal organs, is fatal if untreated and remains a major public health challenge in lower-resource regions. The expanded collaboration builds on the long-running partnership between Gilead and WHO, which has already contributed to a more than 95% reduction in new VL cases in Southeast Asia since 2005.¹

“Ending visceral leishmaniasis is within reach because of sustained commitment and investment,” said Daniel O’Day, chairman and CEO of Gilead Sciences. “With this expanded collaboration and stronger focus on East Africa, we will accelerate progress toward elimination and help ensure more people can access the care they need to survive.”

WHO officials say the initiative reflects growing momentum around neglected tropical disease elimination efforts and demonstrates the importance of coordinated public-private partnerships.

“This agreement underscores the power of strategic partnerships in advancing global health priorities,” said Dr. Jeremy Farrar, assistant director-general for health promotion, disease prevention and care at WHO.

Johnson & Johnson launches surgical AI collaboration in Abu Dhabi

Separately, Johnson & Johnson announced a collaboration with the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi to establish what the companies describe as the first node in a future global surgical intelligence network designed to accelerate AI development in surgery.²

The initiative combines Johnson & Johnson’s Polyphonic digital ecosystem with technology infrastructure from Amazon Web Services and NVIDIA to connect operating rooms across Abu Dhabi into a unified surgical intelligence platform.²

By creating a centralized, governed surgical data ecosystem, the program aims to accelerate development of AI tools that could improve surgical planning, intraoperative decision-making, and postoperative analysis.

Participating healthcare organizations, including Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, PureHealth, Mediclinic Group, and NMC Healthcare, are set to deploy Polyphonic across operating rooms to capture surgical video and multimodal procedural data. The platform is intended to support real-time collaboration, structured case review, and future AI model development.

“Today marks an important step forward for the global community to advance innovation for surgical teams and in service of patients,” said Hani Abouhalka, company group chair, surgery, MedTech, Johnson & Johnson.

Abu Dhabi’s health authorities say the initiative aligns with the emirate’s strategy to build an AI-enabled healthcare infrastructure capable of supporting system-wide clinical innovation.²

Sources

1. Gilead Sciences and World Health Organization Expand Collaboration to Help Eliminate Visceral Leishmaniasis, a Fatal Parasitic Disease Gilead Sciences May 21, 2026 https://www.gilead.com/news/news-details/2026/gilead-sciences-and-world-health-organization-expand-collaboration-to-help-eliminate-visceral-leishmaniasis-a-fatal-parasitic-disease
2. Johnson & Johnson Advances Creation of Global Intelligent OR Network in collaboration with Department of Health -Abu Dhabi Johnson and Johnson May 21, 2026 https://www.jnj.com/media-center/press-releases/johnson-johnson-advances-creation-of-global-intelligent-or-network-in-collaboration-with-department-of-health-abu-dhabi