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.
Shortly after Audi unveiled its first all-electric SUV, the company announced a collaboration with Amazon and that its home services division will install charging stations at owners' homes for around $1,000. Filip Brabec, VP of product management for Audi of America, said Amazon's vetting of electricians and its "hassle-free" approach is what prompted the partnership.
China retaliated to the latest round of tariffs announced by the Trump administration, announcing import taxes on $60 billion in U.S. goods. That came after the White House said it would impose tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods, though many of Apple's products will be exempt.
TripAdvisor is redesigning its site in order to compete with Google and Facebook The site now allows for more collaboration between users, encouraging people to post articles and videos from their trips. CEO Steve Kaufer said that the redesign puts the focus on reaching travelers before they've made trip decisions.
Salesforce co-founder Marc Benioff and his wife Lynne are buying Time Magazine from Meredith for $190 million. Amazon is investigating its employees for allegedly taking bribes in exchange for confidential information. And we sit down with the cast of 'American Dresser' to hear about the upcoming film that centers around two friends taking a cross-country motorcycle trip.
As the online gaming world continues to boom, professional sports organizations are working to marry the online and physical sports world. Hugh Weber, president of the New Jersey Devils, said that there is a way for live esports events to be compelling enough to translate to ticket sales.
Amazon is launching 'Storefronts' as a portal on its massive e-commerce platform to highlight what it calls small- and medium-sized American businesses.
Holly Rutt, the founder of Little Flower Soap Co., is featured in Amazon's first ad campaign to promote the venture. She said she expects to be introduced to an entirely new customer base via the Storefronts portal. Many of the small businesses that Amazon already killed off, though, will not get the same opportunity.
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Digital audio advertising is one area where Google and Facebook don't dominate, thus providing streaming players like Pandora an opportunity to carve out a market with the listener data they own, CEO Roger Lynch said.
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Cheddar anchor Nora Ali analyzes Jet.com's relaunch featuring a new localized strategy for New York, three-hour grocery delivery, Nike partnership, and Siri integration.
