The Bezos family has announced that they would donate $710.5 million over the next decade to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle. It is one of the largest donations ever made to a cancer research institute. The family had previously also donated funds for the centre's research on immunotherapy.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos's mother Jackie Bezos and step-father Mike Bezos, have long been supporters of the institution, popularly known as Fred Hutch. The alliance also led to the opening of Bezos Family Immunotherapy Clinic at the centre in 2016. The clinic has recently merged with clinical care partner Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, Bloomberg reported.
The donation will fund immunotherapy research, 36 new research labs, support the construction of a large research facility, and clinical trial infrastructure over the next ten years, the centre stated on Wednesday.
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Thomas Lynch, president and director of the centre, popularly known as The Hutch, said he worked with Mike and Jackie Bezos to understand what motivated them into making such a massive donation.
He said that the Bezos family valued collaboration in research and treatment of cancer.
"But don't underestimate the importance of urgency," Lynch added in an interview. "Because I think that's something that I feel passionately about and I know that Mike and Jackie feel passionate about being able to bring cures to patients soon."
Commenting on the development, Jeff Bezos tweeted, "The Hutch is going to do incredible things with this."
In a statement, Mike Bezos said, "We hope our investment in The Hutch leads to answers for the most pressing medical questions. We also hope this inspires others to join us now in pursuing scientific and medical breakthroughs."
The Bezos family has previously given almost $68 million to The Hutch's research since 2009, the center said.
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