Another international collaboration materialized as part of the RMB 100 million (USD 14.26 million) fund for R&D and prevention of the coronavirus

Today, the Jack Ma Foundation and the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity in Australia (hereafter referred to as ‘the Doherty Institute’) have officially signed the Donation Agreement, through which RMB 15 million (USD 2.14 million) will be donated to support the Doherty Institute undertaking R&D on the coronavirus vaccine, hoping to speed up the process.

The Doherty Institute is a joint venture between the University of Melbourne and the Royal Melbourne Hospital. During the outbreak of the COVID-19, the Doherty Institute is the first research institute outside of China to have developed the coronavirus strain under lab environment. It is also the first research institute to have shared its research progress to other public health labs across the world.

The donation is part of the ‘RMB 100 million (USD 14.26 million) fund for R&D and prevention of the coronavirus’(hereafter referred to as ‘the Epidemic Prevention Fund’), and will be applied solely to the R&D for coronavirus vaccine, aiming at brining positive impacts on fighting against the coronavirus outbreak.

The collaboration with the Doherty Institute is the second international collaboration of this special fund. The Fund has provided over AUD 3.20 million (USD 2.15 million) for the research team led by Dr. David Da-i Ho in Columbia University, USA, on 18th February, for R&D on coronavirus medicine and vaccine.

The inaugural director of the Doherty Institute, Professor Sharon Lewin from University of Melbourne, said that the Doherty Institute holds the world-leading research team and equipment, but R&D on the vaccine will be a time-consuming and complicated process.

▲The inaugural director of the Doherty Institute, Professor Sharon Lewin from University of Melbourne

“Donation by the Jack Ma Foundation will no doubt speed up our research progress. We are sincerely grateful and the Institute is trying its best to accelerate the progress”, said Professor Sharon Lewin, “Under the current circumstance of global outbreak, vaccine will be the most effective measure to contain the number of infections at global scale. If the outbreak is not controlled in the short term, sooner coming-out of the vaccine will largely contain the spread of the epidemic, and will in the longer term effectively reduce the incidence rate and death rate of the coronavirus.”

Professor Christine Kilpatrick, General Manager of the Royal Melbourne Hospital, said “as leader of the Institute, I’m very proud of the progress our research team has made on the coronavirus vaccine.”

“This donation by the Jack Ma Foundation will without doubt provide extra help and support to our R&D team. We hope to therefore gain more positive progress and help end this pandemic sooner.”

▲the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity is dedicated in accelerating the R&D on vaccine against the COVID-19

Professor Shitij Kapur, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne, also praised the financial support to the Doherty Institute by the Jack Ma Foundation.

“As a healthcare research institute jointly founded by many leading healthcare institutions, universities and bio-medical institutions, the Doherty Institute is glad to be able to contribute to the fight against the covid-19 pandemic, together with the Jack Ma Foundation.”

About the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity

The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity is an unincorporated joint venture between the University of Melbourne and The Royal Melbourne Hospital, is dedicated to discover effective medical solutions for preventing and treating various infectious disease, via innovative R&D methods and synergies between the two parties, and research on the human immune system to bring wellbeing for global human health.