Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Gates Foundation, Charitable Groups Launch $125M Effort To Speed Development Of Coronavirus Treatment
Stat: $125M Effort To Find Coronavirus Drugs Started By Gates Foundation, Wellcome, And Mastercard
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, along with the charitable group Wellcome and Mastercard, announced Tuesday that they were launching a $125 million effort to speed up the development of drugs to treat the novel coronavirus. The initiative, known as the Covid-19 Therapeutics Accelerator, will not be enough to develop even a single new medicine. But Trevor Mundel, the president of the Gates Foundation, said the funding could provide important funds to companies and academic researchers immediately, before government funding will be available. Mundel estimates that two dozen companies, evenly divided between large pharmaceutical firms and small biotechs, could be involved in the effort. (Herper, 3/10)
Reuters: Gates, Other Charities Pledge $125 Million Towards COVID-19 Treatments
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." (Steenhuysen, 3/10)
