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.
The Libra Association has finally gained one major supporter: the e-commerce giant Shopify.
Brothers Khalil and Ahmed Abdullah of Decoy Games are stepping up to help other game developers of color get their footing in the industry.
Stocks fell in midday trading as investors fretted about more signs that a viral outbreak was spreading and a report showing a sharp weakening in U.S. business activity. Investors headed for safer territory.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Friday, February 21, 2020.
With the purchase, Voyager is acquiring 40,000 retail accounts from Circle Invest, adding to its existing 200,000 users. Circle Invest users will be converted to the Voyager platform by the end of next month.
San Francisco-based Lending Club, which went public in 2014, matches borrowers with investors willing to fund their loans. Merging with Radius, a $1.4 billion-asset, Boston-based community bank, gives it a fast track to becoming a regulated deposit-taking company
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At a closed-door gathering in the nation’s capital last month, representatives from close to two-dozen renewable energy, electric vehicle, and environmental advocacy organizations began the early stages of handicapping which Republican senators might be willing to join Democrats in supporting lucrative tax credits for the various green sectors – most of which were axed at the last minute late last year.
From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, these are the top stories that moved markets and had investors, business leaders, and entrepreneurs talking this week on Cheddar.
