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.
Apple is doubling down on its Pay function, expanding it to a wider range of transactions and turning it into a bigger revenue stream for the company.
Facebook is facing more backlash after a New York Times report revealed the social media company shared user data with at least 60 device makers. It turns out Facebook shared information with four Chinese firms, including Huawei. The Chinese company Huawei is the third largest smartphone maker in the world and has also faced intense scrutiny from U.S. government officials.
Tesla shareholders voted to keep Elon Musk on as chairman of the electric carmaker. At the annual shareholder meeting, Musk said the company is on track to deliver 5,000 Model 3 vehicles per week by the end of this month. Tesla will also open a new gigafactory in Shanghai, its first outside of the U.S.
And we talk to WNBA legend and Olympic gold medalist Lisa Leslie. She stars in the new film 'Uncle Drew' alongside Kyrie Irving, Chris Webber, Shaq, and other comedy and basketball greats. Leslie also weighs in on the NFL kneeling controversy.
The disruption of the advertising business will fundamentally alter the way Americans listen, read, and watch media in the future, according to the writer and media critic Ken Auletta.
Some tips from the CEO and founder of the wellness company Thrive Global: blink more, take a walking meeting outside, and get up every 20 minutes.
Tesla's chairman and CEO Elon Musk escaped an attempt by shareholders to strip him of one of his titles at the electric car company he founded. Aaron Cole, managing editor at Motor Authority, said Musk was expected to hold on to his chairmanship, but the shareholders meeting was still an emotional one for the Tesla boss.
Dara Khosrowshahi's emphasis on safety, his decision to change Uber's rules around sexual harassment claims, and his slow and careful search to fill executive jobs are all "ground-breaking," says the Huffington Post founder and CEO of wellness company Thrive Global.
Instagram is testing new features intended to curb addictive use of the photo sharing app, its co-founder and chief technology officer Mike Krieger told Cheddar.
The updated iOS 12 will allow users to create emojis that look like them -- 'Memojis' as Apple is calling it, putting the tool in direct competition with Snapchat. Cheddar's Hope King tries out the new feature with Jeremy Burge, editor of Emojipedia.
Apple is introducing new tools to fight tech addiction. At the company's annual developer conference, Apple unveiled a new feature called 'Digital Health' that allows users to track how much time they spend on their phones and on certain apps. Tim Cook and other Apple executives also took some not-so-subtle jabs at Facebook during the keynote address, calling out the social media company for its data practices.
Starbucks founder and executive chairman Howard Schultz is leaving the company after nearly 40 years. He helped grow Starbucks into an international brand with around 28,000 locations worldwide. Many speculate that Schultz is considering a presidential run in the coming years.
And Hope King sits down with stand-up comedian Nikki Glaser at Comedy Central's Clusterfest. Glaser talks the challenges of being a woman in comedy and how President Trump has changed the industry.
Zunum Aero builds out hybrid-electric and fully electric airplane engines and has received financial support from Boeing HorizonX and JetBlue Technology Ventures.
