France, Norway, Italy, Germany leaders pledge $8 billion to finding coronavirus vaccine and treatments
The leaders of France, Norway, Italy and Germany have pledged on Saturday to raise $8 billion in an “international alliance” to find a vaccine and treatments for the coronavirus.
In a press release published by the European Council, the leaders said that they were building on the commitments made by G20 leaders and supporting the call to action from the World Health Organisation (WHO), and other groups.
“For this reason, we have recently launched the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, a global cooperation platform to accelerate and scale-up research, development, access and equitable distribution of the vaccine and other life-saving therapeutics and diagnostics treatments,” the release read.
“We are determined to work together, with all those who share our commitment to international co-operation,”
The release was signed by Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, France’s President Emmanuel Macron, German’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg.
It was also signed by European Council’s President Charles Michel and European Commission’s President Ursula von der Leyen.
The leaders further said they aimed to raise an initial €7.5 billion ($8 billion) in an online pledging conference due to May 4 “to make up the global funding shortfall estimated by the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB) and others.”
They added that more funding would be required to achieve their goal of manufacturing and delivering medicines on a global scale and “to achieve universal access to vaccination, treatment and testing.”
