The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has announced a $50 million commitment to GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance in support of efforts to develop and equitably distribute COVID-19 diagnostics, therapies, and vaccines.
Announced at the Coronavirus Global Response Summit on Monday, the new funding will support GAVI’s efforts to deliver COVID-19 vaccines to lower-income countries as they become available. The commitment is in addition to the foundation’s core GAVI pledge for the 2021-25 funding round, which will be announced before or at the pledging conference on June 4.
The Gates Foundation’s latest commitment to GAVI boosts to more than $300 million the total it has pledged in support of global COVID-19 response efforts, including $50 million to launch the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator; $150 million to help accelerate virus detection, protect the most vulnerable populations, minimize the social and economic impact of the pandemic, and develop products for a sustained response; $100 million in support of multilateral organizations such as the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as public health authorities in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa; and $25 million in support of a coordinated effort to develop and deliver diagnostics.
“In order to beat COVID-19, the world needs more than great science,” said Gates Foundation co-founder Bill Gates. “It needs great humanity, the commitment to help people beat this virus no matter where they live. This effort will help us do that. With the collective resources and brainpower pledged today, we’ll finally be able to attack this virus in the way it is attacking us — globally. Our foundation is proud to support this critical work, and thanks the European Commission for convening the Global Response Conference.”
Source: PND
