Coronavirus Cure: Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg Team Up To Find COVID-19 Treatment
Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan are donating $25 million to a research project that aims to develop the drug that will help cure patients infected by the coronavirus.
The Facebook founder is putting in money to the project initiated by his mentor Bill Gates. The couple has been known for their philanthropic works, but this by far is the largest donation they have ever made.
Gates And Zuckerberg Team Up To Save The World
Tech billionaire couple Mark and Priscilla have once again answered the call of the many who need help. Through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), the philanthropic organization that the couple runs and funds, the research for possible therapeutic treatments for COVID-19 will be on the move.
The project was through the initiative of another tech billionaire Bill Gates. The goal is to explore possible antiviral drugs that could help protect people from contracting the disease. Through the Gates Foundation, donations from various tech giants have been gathered to look for what they call the "COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator."
The project initially received a $50 million gift last month. With the donation from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the total funding for the research and development project has reached a whopping amount of $125 million.
CZI was established in 2015 and has reached out to several calls for help from various communities. However, the $25 million donations they made to the COVID-19 initiative has been the boldest single grant they have ever made.
The gift from CZI is the second biggest donation ever made for philanthropic work that has been publicly unveiled, falling a bit short to the donation made by Gates' Foundation. Either way, both tech giants are doing their share to help save the world from this world health crisis.
Tech Billionaires Responded To The Call
The tech community is doing its share in gathering resources to fight this global pandemic. Their response is not only limited to finding the vaccine that will fight the coronavirus, but it comes with everything like charitable giving to investments in venture capital programs.
Large Tech Companies have already given their commitment to helping people and communities to cope up with the economic consequences that rose amid the pandemic. However, their help comes in many forms and most of which come off from the balance sheets of their corporate records.
Facebook and Netflix have unveiled the $100 million donations they are putting to help create communities and small businesses during these difficult times. Though some of that money came through in-kind donations such as ad credits, it is still money put into good use.
The $25 million that CZI put through the initiative of the power couple Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan can go a long way to help scientists. The goal is to exhaust the money to develop a drug that will cure the disease that is currently killing thousands of people all over the world.
What makes the battle against COVID-19 even more challenging is that even scientists and medical experts themselves do not understand how the virus mutates and changes. The lack of cure coupled with panic has truly made survival even more challenging.
Organizers said that the goal of the project is to find a cure first while working on developing the vaccine.
"Right now, we are partnering with private and philanthropic enterprises to lower financial risks and other technical barriers for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies developing the cure for COVID-10," said Mark Suzman, head of the Gates Foundation, when he made the announcement of the new venture early this month.
