Canadian donates $172 million to Australian medical research

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Canadian businessman Geoff Cumming has promised $172 million over 20 years to fight the next pandemic in Australia’s largest ever donation to medical research. The donation on Wednesday to Melbourne’s The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, also known as the Doherty Institute, will go toward creating the Cumming Global Center for Pandemic Therapeutics. The center will develop new technologies to treat future pathogens of pandemic potential. Cumming is now a Melbourne resident. Doherty Institute director Sharon Lewin says her institute plans to raise $1.03 billion over the next decade. The Victoria state government has committed $52 million to the project.