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 streaming player company introduced a set of wireless speakers to be integrated into the Roku system. “We know that when users sit down, and they stream their favorite shows or listen to music, if they’ve got great sound as a part of that, it’s just a more immersive experience,” says Mark Ely, vice president of product management for Roku.
The streaming platform added fewer subscribers and generated less revenue than projected in the second quarter. Shares plunged by more than 12 percent in after-hours trading.
This year, Amazon Prime Day is bigger than ever. Cheddar's Hope King explains how this fabricated shopping holiday is a way for Amazon to lure even more Prime subscribers.
With Amazon’s fourth annual Prime Day just around the corner, experts warn the retail giant might not have the best deals out there. “Last year, 20 percent of items that Amazon customers bought on Prime Day were actually cheaper at other stores,” says Louryn Strampe, deal editor at Mobile Nations' Thrifter site.
The start-up launched a pilot program at the Rockaways on Friday. The move comes shortly after Lime entered a partnership with Uber that allows Lime to integrate into the ride-hailing app. "To grow throughout the entire area, this is the first opportunity for us," says Caen Contee, Vice President of Marketing, Business Development, and International Expansion.
The airline announced plans to launch the first direct link between Nairobi and New York, and the CEO believes this is a good first step for countries to invest in Africa. "It's statistically, by far, the youngest population on earth, and is, particularly in Kenya, heavily digitalized," Sebastian Mikosz tells Cheddar. "It's a continent of many opportunities."
The telecommunications company announced two additional unlimited plans for customers, a trend many other wireless companies are turning to. One is a basic plan that focuses on texts and calls, and the other, Unlimited Plus, allows for heavier data use. “One size doesn’t necessarily fit all,” says Brandon “Dow” Draper, the company’s Chief Commercial Officer. "We're really starting to just tailor this to people's needs."
Uber laid off 100 backup drivers for in its autonomous driving division on Thursday, a sign that the fatal crash in Tempe, Ariz., has tempered the company's ambitions. "Uber is saying all the right things publicly, but the accident in Arizona has really set them back," says Mark Rechtin, executive editor at Motor Trend.
The subscription toy company creates boxes of creative DIY projects that are both educational and fun, says CEO Sandra Oh Lin. “We’re trying to instill that creative confidence as well as the tools.”
The $85 billion deal which closed last month is now back in question. The DoJ filed court papers challenging Judge Richard Leon's ruling in June that the government didn't sufficiently prove the merger violated antitrust laws. Cheddar’s Hope King and Brad Smith give us the details.
