Inside a secret group of top scientists and billionaires trying to help America fight Covid-19

A team of more than a dozen top scientists in the United States and billionaires and tycoons from several industries say they have found the answer to the Covid-19 pandemic, and they will also submit this plan to the White House.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the group is headed by a 33-year-old venture capitalist who came from a physical researcher named Tom Cahill, who lives out of the public eye in a rented one-bedroom apartment nearby. Fenway park in Boston. He owned only one suit, but had enough connections to influence the decisions of the US government in the fight against Covid-19.

These scientists and billionaires describe what they are pursuing like the post-blockade Manhattan project (named after the Manhattan project of research and development, making the first atomic bombs during World War II, mostly done by the United States with help from Britain and Canada). This time, scientists are pouring wisdom and money into unorthodox ideas gleaned from around the world.

Calling themselves "Covid-19 containment scientists," this group consists of biotechnology biologists, 1 immunologist, 1 neurobiologist, 1 circadian specialist, 1 oncologist, 1 gastroenterologist, 1 pandemic specialist and 1 nuclear scientist. One of the scientists in this group, biologist Michael Rosbash, who won the 2017 Nobel Prize, considered himself the "least".

This group has become a bridge for pharmaceutical companies to seek a reputable connection with policy makers in the Trump administration. They also work as an informal committee to review a series of studies on corona virus, rejecting false research before it reaches policymakers.

They prepared a 17-page report calling for some measures to prevent the virus. One of the ideas is to use the Ebola virus treatment drug for Covid-19 patients, with a stronger dose than previous trials.

The Director of the National Institutes of Health Francis Collins shared that he agreed with most of the recommendations raised in the report. The report was submitted to Vice President Mike Pence, head of the US corona virus task force.

Returning to Dr. Cahill, his greatest "assets" are those acquired through his investment firm. These are billionaires like Peter Thiel, Jim Pallotta and Michael Milken. Cahill's team also regularly advises Nick Ayers, Pence's long-time aide.

It is clear that no one in this group took finance as the main driving force behind the project. They are motivated by the opportunity to deepen their relationships and support the intense anti-virus war at both the state and federal levels.

"We may fail, but if successful, it can help change the world," said Stuart Schreiber, a chemist who teaches at Harvard University and is a member of the group.

Steve Pagliuca, co-chairman of Bain Capital and one of Cahill's investors, helped pass the report to CEO David Solomon of Goldman Sachs, then Mr. Solomon to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

Outbreak Coronavirus

Two years ago, Cahill - then a doctoral student at Duke University, conducted research on rare genetic diseases. He thought that he would continue to pursue this topic after he finished his thesis. Instead, Cahill contacted a friend and joined his father's company, Raptor Group. He especially likes investing in companies in the life sciences, because he can make a bigger impact by looking for promising scientists and helping them solve problems in both science and talent. main.

Some time later, Cahill created his own investment fund, Newpath Partners, with $ 125 million raised from a small group of wealthy investors, including Peter Thiel. They are fascinated by Cahill's new approach.

In early March, when the number of deaths due to Covid-19 increased, he felt quite disappointed with the status of virus research. Investors also kept asking about the virus, so he held an online meeting to share some ideas on how to accelerate the development of drugs to cope with the new strain of corona virus. Cahill expects to have about 20 attendees. But the results were successful when he connected with so many big men, even investor Milken said that "during 50 years of research in medicine, I have never seen such a big partnership". .

In the first phase, they gathered hundreds of scientific studies on Covid-19 from around the world, classifying them into promising ideas and bad ideas. Each member reads up to 20 studies per day, which is about 10 times faster than daily work. They constantly argue through online meetings and also on phones and messages. Some ideas that have been mentioned as much as using Hydroxychloroquine or antibody testing to allow infected people to return to work are rejected immediately.

The group's first recommendation is to expand the scope of the federal government. For example, buying medicine has not been shown to be an effective way to encourage pharmaceutical companies to speed up production because they are still afraid of losing money if the drug fails. Another recommendation is to reduce the review time for new drugs from 9 months or 1 year to only 1 week.

The next job is to get recommendations to the right people in the Trump administration. Cahill relies on another billionaire: Brian Sheth, co-founder of private equity fund Vista Equity Partners. The character introduced Cahill's group to Thomas Hicks Jr., a Dallas businessman and co-chair of the National Republican Committee (RNC). The relationship helps connect a group of liberal scientists with a powerful Republican who often shoots birds with President Trump's son.

The biggest concern for scientists is the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). They identified monoclonal antibodies as the most promising treatment, but in order to produce sufficient quantities, a pharmaceutical company like Regeneron Pharmaceuticals would have to transfer part of its production to Ireland. FDA law requires that the approval process takes several months.

But the call to the FDA was disappointing when FDA officials said that the disease was under control. After several attempts, the license was eventually granted immediately.

At this point, the group's priority is to implement phase 4: re-opening the US. Ideas include performing a saliva test and testing at the end of the day to get results the very next morning. They also suggested that the entire population use a smartphone application to confirm that they do not have any of the 14 symptoms.

"We need the whole country - the government, businesses and scientists - to unite to fight the disease," Cahill said.