Toyota, Denso work to promote coronavirus treatment development
Denso, which Toyota still holds a stake in, will support Canadian research into treatments.
Toyota has already stepped up to build personal protective equipment for health care workers on the front lines amid the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, which causes COVID-19. Now the company will take an even more active approach in combating the disease.
The automaker said Tuesday that Denso, which Toyota still holds a stake in, will work with a Canadian company to support research into a COVID-19 drug treatment and infection control. To be clear, neither Toyota nor Denso are suddenly in the business of researching and developing medicines. Instead, the two will actively promote this research project with their own expertise.
The company, called D-Wave, is working with Denso in the Canadian project, which provides free access to a quantum computer. The research projects aims to invite various countries to use the incredibly powerful technology to research and develop drug treatments to effectively combat the novel coronavirus.
To date, there is no treatment for COVID-19 and no vaccine to protect populations, which has left experts working at lightning speed to develop a therapeutic drug treatment to help ease severe symptoms.
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Toyota is working in numerous other ways to support its home country, Japan, as the country works to keep the virus under control. Additional efforts include a possible transportation network for those not severely ill. The thought is Toyota can keep those with less severe symptoms away from the public with a group of vehicles used purposefully for a portion of the population, or those in quarantine.
Here in North America, Toyota's already started manufacturing face masks for health care workers and seeks a partner to build respirator masks.
