Founder and CEO of US online social media and social networking service Facebook Mark Zuckerberg. Photo by KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP via Getty Images/FILE)
Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have donated $25 million through their foundation to a philanthropic effort organized by Bill Gates to explore new coronavirus treatments.
The Gates Foundation donated $50 million last week to what it’s calling the “COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator.” The initiative brings together life sciences companies to collaborate on the development of new vaccines, diagnostics, and treatments for COVID-19.
“The Therapeutics Accelerator will enable researchers to quickly determine whether or not existing drugs have a potential benefit against COVID-19,” Chan and Zuckerberg said in a press release. “We hope these coordinated efforts will help stop the spread of COVID-19 as well as provide shared, reusable strategies to respond to future pandemics.”
The two donations are the largest from tech billionaires since the coronavirus outbreak. Wellcome and Mastercard are supporting the effort as well.
The goal of the initiative is to either develop a new drug or adapt an existing treatment that it could help distribute alongside partnering pharmaceutical companies.
The 15 companies participating in the project kicked off the effort by sharing their proprietary libraries of molecular compounds that have some history of being tested with COVID-19.
The lineup includes big names in biotech such as Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Pfizer, Sanofi, and Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Mission-driven fintech company Propel raised $50 million in a Series B round led by Nyca Partners. Propel's mission is to help low-income Americans improve their financial health. The company's free app is called Providers, designed as a one-stop-shop for Americans to manage government benefits and other income side-by-side. Jimmy Chen, founder and CEO of Propel, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Slingshot Aerospace, a company focused on the future of space sustainability, raised $25 million in its latest Series A funding round. The company's projects will allow commercial, government, and civil satellite operators to share traffic information. Slingshot Aerospace's co-founder and CEO Melanie Stricklan joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to talk about the up-and-coming company.
A Ukrainian drone company is using its technology to help defend its home nation during the ongoing war with Russia. Valerii Iakovenko, co-founder and CEO of DroneUA, joined Cheddar News to discuss its efforts to help against the invasion. "These drones can be used to do strikes more precise and even cheap drones, even simple technologies can help to make a defensive possibilities more precise," he said.
Ford has released its plans to grow its electric vehicle business to Europe — despite a potential lack of full features due to the ongoing chip shortage. Dan Ives, managing director of equity research at Wedbush, joined Cheddar News to talk about the challenges facing the automaker. "I mean for them, it's really a Catch-22 because they can't lose out on demand," he said. "And they're having to make some tough decisions." He noted that Ford's stock is under pressure even as the electric vehicle play is the right long-term decision.
Pete Davidson is heading to space. The “Saturday Night Live” star will be among the six passengers on the next launch of Jeff Bezos' space travel venture, Blue Origin.
Sketchers is yet another retailer to announce its entrance into the realm of the metaverse. The footwear company will be launching virtual clothing as well as an experiential store in Decentraland.
