An expert committee convened by the US Institute of Medicine has called for the country to increase investment in global health initiatives to $15 billion per year by 2012.

Earlier in May President Barack Obama asked Congress to dedicate an average of $10.5 billion per year over the next six years to a global health initiative, with $8.5 billion of that funding dedicated to the HIV/AIDS programme PEPFAR (see Nature 457, 254–256; 2009).

But the committee, which included former National Institutes of Health head Harold Varmus, recommended that $13 billion be invested in fulfilling health-related Millennium Development Goals put forward by the United Nations, with another $2 billion for combating injuries and non-communicable conditions, such as heart disease. In addition, it advised that an inter-agency global health committee be created and located in the White House to coordinate such activities.