Microsoft Corp.’s (MSFT) co-founder Bill Gates said his foundation will invest billions of dollars on the construction of factories with the aim of developing a coronavirus vaccine.
The billionaire philanthropist disclosed that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will be selecting the top seven vaccine candidates. Even though the foundation will end up picking at most two of them, it is going to fund factories for all seven.
“It will be a few billion dollars we’ll waste on manufacturing for the constructs that don’t get picked because something else is better,” Gates told Trever Noah on The Daily Show. “But a few billion in this, the situation we’re in, where there’s trillions of dollars … being lost economically, it is worth it.”
Gates believes that therapeutic treatments of coronavirus-infected individuals could begin to roll out in four to six months, but it would take at least 18 months to develop a safe and effective vaccine to prevent COVID-19. In March, the foundation announced a $125 million investment to identify and develop treatments for Covid-19.
Wall Street analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating for Microsoft based on 26 Buys and 1 Hold assigned in the last three months. The $192.46 average price target provides investors with 17% gain in the shares should it be met in the coming 12 months. (Miscrosoft stock analysis on TipRanks).
In March, Gates announced that he would step down from Microsoft’s board to focus on his health-related work at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
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