> Investors and donors—this is where we can help. Please consider shifting some of your focus and capital to scientific efforts addressing the pandemic. (And

> Investors and donors—this is where we can help. Please consider shifting some of your focus and capital to scientific efforts addressing the pandemic. (And future pandemics too—I think this will be a before-and-after moment in the world, and until we can defend against new viruses quickly, things are going to be different.) Although the sentiment resonates, the business logic does not. Consider antibiotic drugs. Big Pharma and biotechs alike have been jettisoning programs. Why? It has nothing to do with science. These drugs simply aren't as profitable as others: > Several major pharmaceutical companies recently shut down their antibiotic and antiviral research projects, backing away from the growing threat of superbugs, which may kill more than 10 million people a year by 2050. https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/pharmacy/big-pharma-backs-off-superbug-why-5-drugmakers-bailed-on-antibiotic-research.html https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/pharmacy/big-pharma-ba... How much do you think a cure for COVID-19 will make its creator? Be careful when you answer, because you'll need to include all of the R&D effort in the calculation, and also consider the opportunity cost of not pursuing something more profitable. The next pandemic (or even this one) won't be cut short by science moonshots. It will take a fundamental shift in how the highly-unprofitable activity of developing drugs taken for a very short period of time and only once gets funded.