Gates Foundation Sells Healthcare Shares

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation , sold most of its healthcare and pharmaceutical holdings recently, and bought shares of telecom and energy companies, according to the Wall Street Journal .

According to a regulatory filing published Friday, the Seattle-based charity created by the billionaire founder of Microsoft Corp. Bill Gates and his wife, sold its total holding of 2.5 million shares in healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson in the past quarter.

The total value of the foundation's investments listed in the filing dropped to $7.5 billion last quarter, about $1 billion less than the previous three months.

With the debate over President Obama's proposed healthcare plan raging throughout the country, the timing of the foundation's decision to drastically reduce its exposure to health-related stocks might mean Gates knows something that others don't.

Speaking about the possible resurgence of a swine flu pandemic this fall, Gates told the Canadian Press Thursday that the rich countries shouldn't be the first to get a vaccine. "I think that (just) because you've paid doesn't mean you should get the vaccine first. That's really the critical point," he said.

In July, the foundation awarded a $41 million grant to Concern Worldwide U.S. to better provide healthcare to children, infants and mothers in developing nations.

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