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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

The Gates Foundation rolls outs details of its new biotech, one without a profit motive [statnews.com]

There's a new biotech in town. And it doesn't care about making money. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has spun out a nonprofit biotech offspring, the Bill and Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute. With funding of $273 million for its first four years, the organization is in an enviable position.

"We don't have to worry about revenue, return on investment. Our bottom line is lives saved. So it's a pretty exciting place to be," Dr. Penny Heaton, the institute's CEO, explained in an interview with STAT this week. Though the institute opened its doors — in temporary space in Cambridge, Mass. — in early January, Heaton introduced it to the biotech world on Thursday at the BIO International Convention in Boston.

The institute's focus is on diseases that disproportionately affect the poor: malaria, tuberculosis, and enteric diseases. The latter are diseases — caused by viruses, bacteria, or parasites — that attack the digestive system. They can cause life-threatening, even fatal bouts of diarrhea, disrupt nutrient absorption, and stunt development.

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