GlaxoSmithKline and Save the Children fund health access schemes

GlaxoSmithKline and Save the Children have announced the winners of their first annual Healthcare Innovation Awards, which provide funding to innovative care concepts.

A total of $400,000 (248,300 pounds) has been allocated to Friends of Sick Children in Malawi, which has developed a low-cost device that helps newborn babies to breathe more easily and could save the lives of thousands of African infants.

Other winners include a Bangladesh-based care programme for urban women and children, a community healthcare scheme in Mali, an innovative mobile health management system in Kenya and the Kangaroo Mother Care programme in Colombia.

The five winners shared a total funding pot of $1 million.

Sir Andrew Witty, chief executive officer of GlaxoSmithKline, said: "These remarkable projects show that significant numbers of lives can be saved and improved through grassroots innovation."

Earlier this month, the company announced that it will be hiring 140 new apprentices over the next two years in the UK, while also taking on 26 more engineering graduate trainees.