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.
Verizon launched its first 5G network in four U.S. cities Monday. One possible use for the technology will be in rolling out self-driving vehicles. Hans Vestberg, CEO of Verizon Communications, said that while it will take some time for fully-autonomous cars to be deployed, 5G will help in solving connectivity and latency issues.
Hans Vestberg, CEO of Verizon Communications, said that the newest 5G network that Verizon is launching in four new cities, is the answer for cord-cutters. The network is the fastest on the market, and Vestberg said it's "a new way to get TV into your home."
Wells Fargo has officially launched a new digital organizer "Control Tower" within its mobile banking app, so customers nationwide can track their increasingly complex and scattered financial footprints. Ben Soccorsy, head of digital payments for Wells Fargo Virtual Channels, told Cheddar, "Customers want the ability to control their data and share it when and how they want."
Tesla looked to claw back its losses Monday after Elon Musk settled a lawsuit with the SEC, agreeing to pay a $20 million fine and step down as chairman for at least three years.
Rafat Ali, the CEO of Skift, took his employees to Puerto Rico to see the destruction from Hurricane Maria firsthand, which became the inspiration for the Skift Foundation. He said the foundation supports destinations and small businesses in the hospitality and travel sector that need additional resources.
Relief for migraine suffers may, at long last, be imminent. With the FDA approving Eli Lilly's Emgality drug, Christi Shaw, president of Lilly Bio-Medicines, expounded on the drug's potential efficacy. The company has said it will offer the treatment to chronic migraine suffers with commercial insurance for free for a year.
Shares of the EV maker fell by more than 14 percent, their biggest one-day drop since January 2012. The sell-off was prompted by Thursday's fraud charges filed by the SEC against CEO Elon Musk.
Shares of Tesla dropped after hours Thursday after the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a [lawsuit] (https://www.scribd.com/document/389617044/SEC-vs-MUSK#from_embed) against CEO Elon Musk in federal court, alleging that the billionaire founder committed securities fraud when he tweeted about taking the company private with "funding secured" on Aug. 7. In the complaint, the SEC seeks to bar Musk from being an officer of a public company.
In the age of fake news and privacy concerns, people are asking if Big Tech needs more regulations, specifically from the federal government. John Chambers, former CEO and executive chairman of Cisco, said if Big Tech doesn't implement its own internal regulations, the government can ー and should ー step in.
Compound has raised $8 million in funding for its newest venture, money markets for Ethereum assets which allow investors to earn interest on their cryptocurrency. Robert Leshner, founder and CEO of Compound, said this is new technology for cryptocurrency lending markets.
