China’s richest man, Jack Ma, has donated $14 million through his foundation to help develop a vaccine for the new coronavirus, according to a report.
The Alibaba founder will dole out $5.8 million to two Chinese government research organizations with the remaining funds going to support “prevention and treatment” efforts, CNN Business reported.
Drugmaker Johnson & Johnson earlier this week said it’s “pretty confident” the company can find a vaccine.
“We have dozens of scientists working on this so we’re pretty confident we can get something made that will work and stay active for the longer term,” Paul Stoffels, the company’s chief scientific officer, told CNBC.
But he said it could take up to a year for the vaccine to be available on the market.
“We’ll see in the next few weeks how this goes,” Stoffels added, according to the report.
The new coronavirus — which has killed more than 170 people — emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan and has no known cure.
