Bill Gates, others pledge $125 million towards coronavirus treatments
The money is intended to ensure that treatments for the virus will be available in poor countries and affordable for individuals.
By REUTERSBill Gates, Co-Chair of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, attends a conversation at the 2019 New Economy Forum in Beijing(photo credit: REUTERS)The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and two other large charities on Tuesday pledged up to $125 million to help speed the development of treatments for the fast-spreading coronavirus, which the World Health Organization said on Monday was nearing pandemic proportions.The effort, known as the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator, will focus on new and repurposed drugs that can be used right away to treat patients infected with the novel coronavirus and possibly other viruses in the future.The money is intended to ensure that treatments for the virus will be available in poor countries and affordable for individuals.Currently, no antiviral drugs or other immune system treatments have been approved to treat COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.The Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust medical charity are each contributing up to $50 million, and the Mastercard Impact Fund has committed up to $25 million for initial projects.The Gates Foundation’s funding is part of its $100 million commitment to the COVID-19 response announced last month."Viruses like COVID-19 spread rapidly, but the development of vaccines and treatments to stop them moves slowly," Mark Suzman, chief executive officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said in a statement."If we want to make the world safe from outbreaks like COVID-19, particularly for those most vulnerable, then we need to find a way to make research and development move faster. That requires governments, private enterprise, and philanthropic organizations to act quickly to fund research and development."The crown prince of the oil-rich emirate of Abu Dhabi tweeted on Friday that he had discussed cooperation in fighting the new coronavirus with the US billionaire philanthropist.Abu Dhabi is the capital of the United Arab Emirates federation, which has reported at least 27 coronavirus cases."My good friend @BillGates and I discussed over a call the importance of enhancing cooperation between multilateral institutions and private entities in the global fight against all diseases and COVID19 in particular," Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the de-facto ruler of the UAE, tweeted. "We have been and will remain strong partners in this effort."
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