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.
Online wealth advisor Betterment announced Tuesday that it's launching checking and savings accounts with a competitive annual yield of 2.69%.
ELLO Capital will focus on guiding U.S.-focused cannabis, hemp, and ancillary companies through mergers and acquisitions, capital raises and private placements. The company also aims to assist “traditional cpg companies that are looking at how to navigate the CBD or cannabis world,” like Altria, Diageo, and Constellation.
A new co-investment platform for homeownership called Haus has just raised $7.1 million in seed funding. Haus, created by Uber
Co-founder Garrett Camp, says that its system results in 30% lower payments for homeowners than traditional mortgages. Haus CEO Jonathan McNulty joined Cheddar to discuss how his company shares some of the risk for a slice of the reward.
*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.*
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Friday, July 19, 2019.
eMarketer reports U.S. esports ad revenues are expected to pass $200 million by 2020. Jimmy Mondal, host of Cheddar Esports, breaks down why it's so important for teams to bring on partners and why a website is crucial to building a fan base.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Thursday, July 18, 2019.
The House Financial Services Committee had more pointed questions for Facebook's David Marcus about the governing structure of the Libra Association in the second day of Congressional grilling.
Netflix had expected to pick up 4.7 million global customers in Q2. Instead it reported gaining 2.8 million. Shares tumbled over 10 percent after hours as the streaming giant reported Q2 earnings.
Facebook's David Marcus faced another day of governmental grilling, this time at the hands of the House Financial Services Committee, over the social media giant's plans for its digital currency Libra.
