Worldwide fundraising for cures and vaccines is close to 7.5 billion

2020-05-04T20:44:33.469Z

Today's target was € 7.5 billion to ensure the collaborative development and universal availability of vaccines and diagnostic and therapeutic tools for coronavirus, and a breath was missed, reaching 7.4 billion. The fundraising that took place today - the first part of a real marathon - linked to the mobilization event "Global response to the coronavirus" and organized jointly by the European Union and Saudi Arabia (which holds the rotating presidency of the G20 ), Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Italy (incoming G20 presidency), Norway, the United Kingdom and Spain, followed the appeal of the World Health Organization and a group of initiators working in the field of health, which they called for a worldwide collaboration to accelerate development, production and fair access to the world to new health technologies essential for the fight against coronavirus. There are three partnerships envisaged by the global response: testing, treatment and prevention, underlying a process of strengthening health systems. At the end of the collection, the European Commission registered financing commitments from around the world for a value of 7.4 billion euros (about 8 billion dollars), which includes the financing commitment of 1.4 billion euro of the Commission itself. The result is close to the initial target of 7.5 billion and is an excellent starting point for the marathon, which will continue further. "Today the world has shown extraordinary unity in the name of the common good - said the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen - Governments and world health organizations have joined forces against coronavirus. With such a commitment we are on the good way to develop, produce and distribute a vaccine for everyone, but this is only the beginning. We must persist in our efforts and be ready to contribute even more significantly. The fundraising marathon continues: society all over the world civilians and people will have to join governments in this global display of hope and determination. "