Gates, Wellcome and Mastercard launch $125 mn initiative to curb COVID-19

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome and MasterCard announced a new initiative to accelerate technologies designed to identify, assess, develop and scale treatments to the COVID-19 epidemic.

The COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator will evaluate new and repurposed drugs and biologics to treat patients with COVID-19 in the immediate term, and other viral pathogens in the future, according to a statement from the Gates Foundation.

Gates and Wellcome, a nonprofit foundation, are each contributing up to $50 million to the accelerator, with the Gates Foundation money pulled from its $100 million commitment to finance a COVID-19 response made in February.

According to Mark Suzman, Chief Executive Officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, “Viruses like COVID-19 spread rapidly, but the development of vaccines and treatments to stop them moves slowly. “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 R&D.”

The new accelerator will work with the World Health Organization, government and private sector funders and other organizations, along with regulators and policy-setting institutions, according to a statement, and will focus on everything from drug pipeline development through manufacturing and expanding production and distribution.

According to a statement from the foundation, the accelerator will operate as a joint initiative of the funders and will pursue three different strategies. It will identify compounds and potential novel therapies, work with industry partners and coordinate with regulators to get treatments into the market.

 “This virus is an unprecedented global threat, and one for which we must propel international partnerships to develop treatments, rapid diagnostics, and vaccines. Science is moving at a phenomenal pace against COVID-19, but to get ahead of this epidemic we need greater investment and to ensure research co-ordination. The Therapeutics Accelerator will allow us to do this for potential treatments with support for research, development, assessment, and manufacturing. COVID-19 is an extremely challenging virus, but we’ve proved that through collaborating across borders we can tackle emerging infectious diseases,” said Dr. Jeremy Farrar, Director of Wellcome