Fighting against infectious diseases since 1967

The world is undergoing profound changes, leading to crises, which multiply in all regions. Whether political, security-related, demographic, economic and climatic in nature, all crises contribute to worsening the health conditions of affected populations, creating an ideal breeding ground of development and spread for epidemics. Low-income countries are the hardest-hit by these increasingly complex contexts, with mothers and children at the forefront.

This is why the Mérieux Foundation, an independent foundation with public interest status, has been fighting infectious diseases affecting vulnerable populations in resource-limited countries since its creation in 1967.

Operating directly in more than 25 countries, it is committed to strengthening local capacities, particularly in clinical biology, in order to improve access to care, surveillance and response to epidemics.

The foundation works side-by-side with local partners and builds networks to mobilize the skills and energies necessary to implement effective and sustainable actions, at the closest of the population’s needs.

It is particularly involved in the public health issues that have the greatest impact in the countries where it operates, such as antimicrobial resistance, tuberculosis, acute respiratory infections, HIV, and emerging pathogens.

Committed to an integrated approach to health, the Mérieux Foundation goes beyond its expertise in biology to include the main and most impactful issues that influence the well-being of the populations in the countries where it operates.

An approach closely linked to the sustainable development goals

The Mérieux Foundation works independently in the service of global health. By adopting a “One Health” approach, it contributes to achieving several of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

Its cross-functional and international activities are focused on:

• SDG #3 “Good health and well-being”
• SDG #4 “Quality education”
• SDG #9 “Industry, innovation and infrastructure”
• SDG #17 “Partnerships for achieving the Goals”

Within each of these goals, several targets directly concern the Foundation’s action, such as target 3.3, which aims to end the tuberculosis epidemic worldwide by 2030.

One mission, four main objectives

• Increasing vulnerable populations’ access to diagnostics by strengthening clinical laboratories in national healthcare systems.
• Enhancing local applied research capabilities collaborative programs development.
• Encouraging knowledge-sharing and public health initiatives working with Les Pensières Center for Global Health.
• Improving conditions for mothers and children taking a global health approach.

One of the main pillars of the Mérieux Foundation lies in its capacity for direct intervention in the field, from the network of laboratories of excellence built at the source of outbreak-prone regions, to the presence of local teams in 16 countries. To carry out its mission, the Mérieux Foundation can rely on its expertise, its great experience in the field and its local partnerships built up over more than 15 years of international development.

Our world is in turmoil, marked by conflict, violence, and uncertainty. The need for healthcare is greater than ever before, with the threat of infection remaining omnipresent and hitting the most fragile populations even harder.

In 2024, true to its public health mission, our Foundation stayed on course.

All the countries in which we operate are facing dramatic situations, some of which are desperate. Nevertheless, thanks to the links we have forged over many years with our partners in the field, we continue to work alongside them to help people and fight infectious diseases without borders.

In Haiti, a country left in the hands of gangs and forgotten by the international community, the situation has become untenable. We have maintained links for over 20 years with Sinior Raymond and ACME microfinance, with Professor Pape of the GHESKIO Center, and with Brother Armand and Sister Armelle in charge of the Léogâne children’s home. They are holding the fort with admirable will and strength, and we are proud to have met them and to be able to support them.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the mobile laboratories sent to Goma at the end of 2019 proved to be strategic during various epidemics. Over the past five years, they have been used successively to diagnose Ebola, COVID-19, Monkey Pox, and Anthrax. The country is now at the center of conflicts with Rwanda and M23, a situation bringing more uncertainty.

In Mali, we remain one of the few French institutions to be well accepted by the government, and the Charles Mérieux Center for Infectious Disease in Bamako continues to operate despite difficult circumstances, providing access to diagnosis, which is essential for patient care.

In Madagascar, where child malnutrition is widespread and devastating, we continue to support Father Pedro’s exemplary work with homeless children and to assist the Charles Mérieux Center for Infectious Disease with research work applied to local pathologies.

There is a glimmer of hope in Lebanon, where after months of political deadlock and chaos, the new government is trying to take the situation back in hand. We are due to open a second Mother & Child Center in the Beqaa Valley.

After opening a laboratory in Tunisia in 2021, another Rodolphe Mérieux Laboratory is currently being built within the Institut Pasteur in Casablanca, Morocco, and will be inaugurated before the end of the year.

It is now more essential than ever to work together on a global scale with a long-term perspective, overcome political divides, and decompartmentalize disciplines. I am proud to see that the laboratories we have created over the past 20 years continue to work as a network to fulfill this vision, despite unprecedented geopolitical upheavals. We also develop partnerships with other institutions that share the same values and that we can rely on.

The global health challenges we face are immense, and are made particularly difficult by the increasingly inward-looking focus of large nations. We must ride the storm, with the hardest part yet to come. We are working tirelessly to ensure the sustainability of our actions and strengthen our structures.

In 2024, for example, I worked to bring together the Mérieux Foundation and the Fondation Christophe et Rodolphe Mérieux housed at the Institut de France. The merger of these two foundations, which were set up by the family and share the same purpose, has been effective since April 2025. Under the single banner of the Mérieux Foundation, they will strengthen the coherence and effectiveness of our actions in the long term.

After six years as Director General of the Foundation, Jean-Pierre Bosser will step down in September 2025 and I commend the remarkable work he has achieved. He strengthened and structured our organization, enabling it to withstand our constantly changing environment. He will be replaced in October by Dorothée Lintner, who, having served at the head of Bioforce, will have to face complex challenges, pursue priority programs in the field of infectious diseases, and continue to deploy Mother & Child campaigns in the countries where we are present.

In the field, in countries where everyday life is extraordinarily difficult, we are fortunate to be able to rely on a network of exceptional women and men who work tirelessly to be able to provide a better future for their people. We owe it to ourselves to remain at their side. Their courage and determination command respect and give meaning to our commitment.

Foundations relationships

Unification of the Mérieux Foundation and the Christophe and Rodolphe Mérieux Foundation

“In a global environment where inequalities and healthcare needs have never been greater, I felt that reuniting the Mérieux Foundation, operational entity, and the Christophe and Rodolphe Mérieux Foundation, grant-making entity, under a single structure made perfect sense.”

“Bringing together these two foundations created by our family and sharing a common vision will strengthen the sustainability and coherence of our actions, enabling us to continue to fully assume our mission to help vulnerable populations.”

Alain Mérieux, President of the Mérieux Foundation

A strengthened endowment for a preserved operating model

The endowment of the Christophe and Rodolphe Mérieux Foundation was transferred free of charge to the Mérieux Foundation Mérieux.

Capital of the Mérieux Alliance company:

Independence and public interest foundation status maintained

A merged identity for a combined action

Our activities in 2024 were affected by a combination of two particularly worrying phenomena. Firstly, the resurgence of international conflicts and their renewed intensity increased the number of people in highly vulnerable situations. Secondly, there was a massive reduction in public funds available to meet these needs.

In this tense security and financial context, plunging the world of development aid into great uncertainty, the Mérieux Foundation upheld its commitment with determination, consolidating its international partnerships and maintaining an active presence in particularly dire situations.

Fighting antimicrobial resistance, strengthening access to diagnosis for all, improving epidemiological surveillance, training health practitioners in countries with limited resources, and improving maternal and child healthcare remained our priorities in 2024. To achieve our objectives, we know we can count on our network of partners fulfilling the day-to-day needs of those who need it most.

This is my last year as head of the Mérieux Foundation, after six years rich in challenges, developments, and collaboration. The guiding principle behind my work has been to structure the Mérieux Foundation and enhance its performance in the field to help vulnerable populations; to act safely in a changing and unstable context, while maintaining the Foundation’s agility, which will remain essential in the complexity of tomorrow’s world.

I would like to thank all the teams at the Mérieux Foundation, in the various countries and at head office, for their professionalism, their commitment, and their ability to innovate in particularly demanding and changing environments.

I have every confidence in the capacity of this wonderful institution, which places people, international solidarity, and excellence at the heart of its action, to continue working as closely as possible with local populations. I am more convinced than ever of the need for the expertise developed by the Mérieux Foundation in the field over the past 60 years and of the importance of our mission to strengthen local capacities to improve the health of the most vulnerable people.

I wish all the best to Dorothée Lintner, who is taking over the reins, as well as to all the employees and partners of the Mérieux Foundation.