The purpose of the Department of Health is to improve the health and wellbeing of people in England. Its work includes setting national standards for health and healthcare, shaping the direction of the National Health Service and social care services, and promoting healthier living. The Department plays a key role in supporting high-quality research to inform decision making by policy makers through the Policy Research Programme and by clinicians, health service managers and patients through the National Institute for Health Research.

The Medical Research Council (MRC) is a publicly-funded organization dedicated to improving human health. MRC supports research across the entire spectrum of medical sciences, in universities and hospitals, in their own units and institutes in the UK, and in their units in Africa.

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is the UK's leading agency for research funding and training in economic and social sciences.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) a leading research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare company-is committed to improving the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better, and live longer. GSK is one of the few pharmaceutical companies researching both medicines and vaccines for WHO's three priority diseases - HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria and is proud to have developed some of the leading global medicines in these fields. Headquartered in the UK with operations in the U.S., GSK represents an estimated seven percent of the world's pharmaceutical market. But being a leader brings responsibility. GSK believes that it must help developing countries where debilitating disease affects millions of people and access to life-changing medicines and vaccines is a problem. To meet this challenge, GSK is committed to providing discounted medicines where they are needed the most. GSK also produces medicines that treat major disease areas such as asthma, virus control, infections, mental health, diabetes, and digestive conditions. In addition, GSK is a leader in the area of vaccines and is developing new treatments for cancer.

Johnson & Johnson is a comprehensive and broadly based manufacturer of health care products, as well as a provider of related services, for the consumer, pharmaceutical, and medical devices and diagnostics markets. Employees of the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies work with partners in health care to touch the lives of over a billion people every day, throughout the world. Our long-standing operating model has four simple concepts: being broadly based in human health; managing our business for the long term; taking a decentralized management approach; and focusing on our people and values. Our Family of Companies comprises a premier consumer health care company, the world’s largest and most diverse medical devices and diagnostics company, and a broad pharmaceuticals segment. Our approach to innovation has resulted in a robust portfolio of diverse pharmaceutical products that address public healthcare needs, including access and affordability, in meaningful ways.

GE Healthcare demonstrated its leadership by becoming the first organization to sponsor the Pacific Health Summit and has continued to support the Summit each year. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a $17 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) employing more than 46,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. GE Healthcare is an integral part of GE’s new $6 billion "healthymagination" vision to help customers to deliver better care to more people around the world at a lower cost. In addition, the program will improve the health and competitiveness of GE’s employees and encourages GE Healthcare to partner with healthcare leaders and Governments striving to leverage the global policy change necessary to implement a successful shift to sustainable healthcare systems. For more information on healthymagination, please click here.

Sanofi-aventis is a diversified global healthcare company, focused on patient needs. Core strengths are a worldwide presence, market leadership in vaccines, and major biological products. In addition to prescription pharmaceuticals and vaccines, company business activities include consumer healthcare products, generics, and animal health products. With almost 100,000 employees in more than 100 countries, sanofi-aventis posted sales of more than 27.5 billion Euros in 2008, including 22.9 billion Euros in pharmaceutical business and 2.8 billion Euros in the human vaccines business, where Sanofi Pasteur is a world leader. As a healthcare leader, sanofi-aventis is concerned about global public health issues: to meet the needs of countries in the Southern hemisphere, we work through “Access to medicines” programs to combat malaria, tuberculosis, sleeping sickness, leishmaniasis, and epilepsy.

Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of sanofi-aventis Group, provided more than 1.6 billion doses of vaccines in 2008, making it possible to immunize more than 500 million people across the globe. A world leader in the vaccine industry, Sanofi Pasteur offers the broadest range of vaccines protecting against 20 infectious diseases. The company's heritage, to create vaccines that protect life, dates back more than a century. Sanofi Pasteur is the largest company entirely dedicated to vaccines. Every day, the company invests more than 1 million Euros in research and development.

Merck & Co., Inc. is a global health research company dedicated to improving humanity through treatment identification, prevention and cures of unmapped diseases. As one of the largest pharmaceutical facilities in the world, Merck discovers and produces medicines and vaccines in over 20 remedial categories. Merck is committed to putting patients first and dedicates resources towards reaching remote locations to provide the most advanced health essentials for those in need.

Swedish Medical Center is the largest, most comprehensive, nonprofit health-care provider in Seattle. Swedish is comprised of three hospital campuses (First Hill, Providence, and Ballard), a new community-based emergency room and specialty center in Issaquah, Swedish Home Care Services and Swedish Physicians—a network of 12 primary-care clinics. In addition to general medical and surgical care, Swedish is known as a regional referral center, providing specialized treatment in areas such as cardiac care, oncology, orthopedics, high-risk obstetrics, neurological care, sleep medicine, pediatrics, organ transplantation, and clinical research. Swedish has also taken a leadership role in providing community health delivery innovations, including its new Medical Home on its Ballard campus.

Chevron Corporation is one of the world's leading integrated energy companies, with subsidiaries that conduct business worldwide. Chevron is the largest resource holder and producer among international oil companies in Asia-Pacific. The company's success is driven by the ingenuity and commitment of approximately 62,000 employees who operate across the energy spectrum. Chevron explores for, produces, and transports crude oil and natural gas; refines, markets, and distributes transportation fuels and other energy products; manufactures and sells petrochemical products; generates power and produces geothermal energy; provides energy efficiency solutions; and develops the energy resources of the future, including biofuels and other renewables. Chevron is based in San Ramon, California.

The Coca-Cola Company is the largest nonalcoholic beverage company in the world. Along with Coca-Cola, the Company markets four of the world’s top-five soft drinks, including diet Coke, Fanta, and Sprite, and nearly 400 brands and more than 2,100 products worldwide—including low- and no-calorie soft drinks, juices and juice drinks, waters, sports and energy drinks, teas, coffees, soybased drinks, and fortified beverages with nutritional benefits. In 2004, the Company established the Beverage Institute for Health & Wellness to advance understanding of role that beverages, and beverage ingredients, can play in nutrition, health, and wellness.

Miraca Holdings Inc., headquartered in Tokyo, provides a wide variety of diagnostic products and over 4,000 clinical testing services through its affiliated companies, including Fujirebio Inc., Fujirebio Diagnostics Inc. (Pennsylvania, U.S., formerly Centocor Diagnostics), and SRL, Inc. With its primary focus on developing, manufacturing, and marketing of in vitro diagnostics, medical devices and testing services, Miraca Holdings is and will be committed to global healthcare.

ExxonMobil, the largest publicly traded international oil and gas company, uses technology and innovation to help meet the world’s growing energy needs. ExxonMobil holds an industry-leading inventory of resources, is the largest refiner and marketer of petroleum products, and its chemical company is one of the largest in the world. ExxonMobil engages in a range of philanthropic activities that advance education, health and science in the communities where ExxonMobil has significant operations. Globally, ExxonMobil provides funding to improve basic education, promote women as catalysts for development, and combat malaria and other infectious diseases in developing countries. ExxonMobil is the largest non-pharmaceutical corporate donor to malaria research and development efforts, and since 2000 has committed $193 million to Africa community outreach programs, including $69 million on programs to fight malaria.

The Rockefeller Foundation works around the world to ensure that more individuals, institutions, and communities can tap into growth and opportunity while strengthening resilience to risks and challenges, affirming its founding mission to “promote the well-being” of humanity. The Foundation today supports initiatives to mobilize an agricultural revolution in sub-Saharan Africa, bolster economic security for American workers, inform more equitable, sustainable transportation policies in the United States, assure access to affordable, high-quality health systems in developing countries, and help vulnerable communities cope with the impacts of imminent climate change.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software, services, and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. Microsoft’s global vision enables its diverse workforce to generate innovative ideas and develop new technology. Through these ideas, Microsoft has developed the deep foundation necessary to support the communities that we work and live in each day.

Jhpiego is an international non-profit health organization affiliated with The Johns Hopkins University. Jhpiego draws on its technical expertise and extensive experience in the field- as well as the creativity and science of The Johns Hopkins University- to prevent the needless deaths of women and their families. For more than 35 years, Jhpiego has empowered front-line health workers by designing and implementing effective, low-cost, hands-on solutions to strengthen the delivery of health care services for women and their families. With nearly 700 employees currently working in over 54 counties, Jhpiego puts evidence-based health innovations into everyday practice, breaking down barriers to high-quality health care for the world’s most vulnerable populations. Jhpiego's technical expertise lies in the areas of maternal and child health, family planning and reproductive health, cervical cancer prevention and treatment, and infectious disease.

The MacArthur Foundation supports creative people and effective institutions committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. In addition to selecting the MacArthur Fellows, the Foundation works to defend human rights, advance global conservation and security, make cities better places, and understand how technology is affecting children and society.

PATH is an international nonprofit organization that creates sustainable, culturally relevant solutions, enabling communities worldwide to break longstanding cycles of poor health. By collaborating with diverse public- and private-sector partners, PATH helps provide appropriate health technologies and vital strategies that change the way people think and act. PATH’s work improves global health and well-being.

Save the Children is an independent organization creating lasting change for children in need in the United States and in 41 other countries around the world. Save the Children’s Saving Newborn Lives program, supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, works in partnership with 18 countries to reduce newborn mortality and improve newborn health.

RESULTS Educational Fund, and its affiliate offices, is committed to educating the public, media, and leaders about issues related to domestic and global poverty and hunger. REF holds public forums, trains citizens in democracy, holds media conference calls to share the latest information, and produces quality oversight research to determine the effectiveness of programs for the poor.

UNICEF is on the ground in over 150 countries and territories to help children survive and thrive, from early childhood through adolescence. The world's largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.

The Global Alliance to Prevent Prematurity and Stillbirth (GAPPS), an initiative of Seattle Children’s, works to eliminate prematurity and stillbirths globally. The one million annual deaths from prematurity contribute to more under-five deaths than AIDS, malaria or tuberculosis. In addition, a staggering three million stillbirths occur each year, yet this often-taboo topic is rarely addressed. In collaboration with diverse global partners in science, public health and policy, GAPPS is advancing research to understand causes; accelerating delivery of low-cost, effective interventions; and raising awareness about these neglected issues. GAPPS is also building a repository of data and specimens from pregnant women, such as blood and tissues, which will serve as a significant global resource in advancing medical and public health research.