Bill Gates pitch­es in on coro­n­avirus R&D and con­tain­ment ef­forts with $100M com­mit­ment

The Gates Foun­da­tion has signed up to take a role in the grow­ing pub­lic-pri­vate re­sponse to a brew­ing pan­dem­ic.

The non­prof­it group said Wednes­day it is pre­pared to spend up to $100 mil­lion to help spur new R&D in­to vac­cines, di­ag­nos­tics and ther­a­pies while re­serv­ing part of that mon­ey for de­tec­tion and con­tain­ment work.

“Mul­ti­lat­er­al or­ga­ni­za­tions, na­tion­al gov­ern­ments, the pri­vate sec­tor and phil­an­thropies must work to­geth­er to slow the pace of the out­break, help coun­tries pro­tect their most vul­ner­a­ble cit­i­zens and ac­cel­er­ate the de­vel­op­ment of the tools to bring this epi­dem­ic un­der con­trol,” said new Gates Foun­da­tion CEO Mark Suz­man. “Our hope is that these re­sources will help cat­alyze a rapid and ef­fec­tive in­ter­na­tion­al re­sponse. This re­sponse should be guid­ed by sci­ence, not fear, and it should build on the steps that the World Health Or­ga­ni­za­tion has tak­en to date.”

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