Our Story

The Hepatitis Fund is the result of a longstanding partnership between the ZeShan Foundation, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dating back to 2008.

The driving force behind the Hepatitis Fund was the late Mrs Laura Chen, the visionary executive chair of the ZeShan Foundation. She recognized the devastating impact of hepatitis B on millions of people around the world and knew something had to be done.

ZeShan Foundation took the lead in incubating the Hepatitis Fund, providing operational and staff support and funding for various projects in low and middle-income countries. With the US CDC as a co-funding partner, they established a dedicated team for hepatitis in the WHO’s Western Pacific Region, committing to funding for a decade.

In 2015, at the first World Hepatitis Summit in Glasgow, the ZeShan Foundation started a conversation with the US CDC Division of Viral Hepatitis and the WHO Western Pacific region. Together, they explored the idea of creating an international funding mechanism to support hepatitis elimination efforts. And with ZeShan Foundation’s seed funding, the Hepatitis Fund was finally registered in Geneva in late 2019.

Thanks to its funders’ leadership and dedication, the Hepatitis Fund can now support catalytic programmes in the global effort against hepatitis.

“ZeShan is proud to have seeded The Hepatitis Fund, a capstone to our decade-long effort in helping the world move towards the goal of eliminating viral hepatitis. While ambitious, the goal is actually an achievable one, and it is this belief that had driven our late sister Laura, when she was leading our family foundation, to make a strategic commitment to this cause, including the incubation of The Hepatitis Fund”.
Wynnie and Annie Chen, Grants Committee Members, ZeShan Foundation