UN welcomes nearly $1 billion in recent pledges - to bolster access to lifesaving tests, treatments and vaccines to end COVID-19

The United Nations and its partners welcomed a monumental show of solidarity as governments, private sector, civil society and international organizations committed support to the Access to COVID-19 Tools- (ACT) Accelerator initiative launched by the World Health Organization alongside international partners.

Nearly US$1 billion in new financing has been committed to the initiative – the world’s most comprehensive multilateral end-to-end solution to the devastating COVID-19 pandemic.

The ACT-Accelerator, which was co-launched by the World Health Organization, European Commission, France, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation just five months ago, needs an additional US$35 billion to realize its goals of producing 2 billion vaccine doses, 245 million treatments, and 500 million tests. The new commitments to the initiative are welcome and will be leveraged to catalyze further funding to continue the ACT-Accelerator’s groundbreaking work.

Most urgently, the ACT-Accelerator requires US$15 billion to support immediate capacity-building—for research and development, manufacturing, procurement, and delivery systems—by the end of the year.

Unprecedented Global Collaboration

The ACT-Accelerator, which was launched just five months ago, is an unprecedented global collaboration of the world’s top international health organizations working together to accelerate the development, production, and equitable delivery of COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines.

The United Kingdom recently committed up to £571m (approximately US$ 732m) for COVAX. This includes up to £500m for the Gavi Advanced Market Commitment for COVID-19 (COVAX AMC) vaccines—a financing instrument that incentivises vaccine manufacturers to produce sufficient COVID-19 vaccines to ensure access for developing countries.

The UK Foreign Secretary called for more support, pledging that this £500m commitment would include £1 (IS$ 1.29) in matched funding for every US$4 committed by others for up to £250m (approximately US$ 321m).

Germany, Canada, and Sweden have also made new commitments to the COVAX AMC of Euro 100 million, CAD$ 220 million, and US$ 10 million respectively. These are eligible for matching with UK’s matching commitment.

“I am grateful for the generous financial commitments made today, but we still have a significant funding gap to close. Fully financing the ACT Accelerator will help to control the pandemic, restore confidence and stimulate the global recovery,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.

The event highlighted the substantial results achieved by the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator initiative since its launch: the availability of 120 million affordable and high-quality rapid tests for low- and middle-income countries; a breakthrough in trials with, and a rapid rollout of, Dexamethasone—the only drug found to make a significant difference to patient mortality; the creation of the COVAX Facility – the global mechanism to ensure equitable access to eventual COVID-19 vaccines regardless of income -comprising 168 economies and the largest and most diverse vaccine portfolio in the world, with nine candidate vaccines under evaluation, eight of them in clinical trials.

In another significant show of support, a coalition of 16 pharmaceutical companies and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation signed an agreement to cooperate on vaccine manufacturing and to scale up production at an unprecedented speed, ensuring that approved vaccines are more broadly accessible and distributed as early as possible.

The World Bank unveiled plans this week for a significant financial commitment to support developing countries to purchase COVID-19 vaccines as soon as they are available.

World Bank President David Malpass said that once the plans are ratified by stakeholders, “having up to US$ 12 billion available in finance will be a game-changer because once a safe and effective vaccine is available, it will allow people to resume their lives with confidence.”

Investing in Global Recovery

The ACT-Accelerator Investment Case illustrates the considerable economic benefits of collectively accelerating the development and deployment of tools to rapidly reduce the risk of severe COVID-19 disease globally. Prior to UNGA 2020, the ACT-Accelerator has raised US$3 billion out of a need of US$38 billion. More detail can be found in the Act-Accelerator investment case.

The economic rationale for investing in an approach that can accelerate the end of the COVID-19 crisis remains clear. Fully financing the initiative to help shorten the duration of the crisis would pay back this investment in less than 36 hours once global mobility and trade alone are restored.

Original source: WHO