TOKYO –Japan's Global Health Innovative Technology Fund (GHIT Fund), which works with several Japanese ministries, pharmaceutical companies and other nonprofit organizations, such as the United Nations Development Program and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, launched a "Grand Challenge" that will see it invest up to $1 million per applicant "for the early stage development of radically new and improved drugs, vaccines or diagnostics to prevent and treat infectious diseases that are prevalent in developing countries."