On a landmark day in the fight against COVID-19, a unique collaboration of global health partners was launched by the WHO which brought together world leaders, multi-lateral NGOs and industry leaders to pledge their commitment to working together to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic. Alongside this historic moment was the announcement of a European Union-led worldwide pledging marathon to raise an initial €7.5 billion to end this pandemic, which will begin on 4 May 2020.
CEPI is proud to be a founding member of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, which will accelerate the development, production and deployment of safe and effective diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines against COVID - making them accessible to everyone, worldwide.
The launch was co-hosted by WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and is a pivotal moment in the global fight against COVID-19, providing high-level political support and crucial momentum to the work to deliver a long-term ‘exit strategy' from the pandemic.
This unique collaboration, bringing together governments, the private sector, multilateral organisations and global philanthropies, has been convened to address the unprecedented nature of the COVID-19 pandemic to save millions of lives and countless trillions of dollars, and to return the world to a sense of normalcy.
The establishment of the ACT Accelerator is a watershed moment in the world coming together to develop a global exit strategy from the COVID-19 pandemic. Everyone must have access to the tools and countermeasures including vaccines that we will develop through the ACT accelerator. Today, there is hope. By bringing together the collective strength, resources and expertise of the institutions that will contribute to the ACT accelerator, we can end this pandemic together. CEPI is proud to be part of this global collaborative effort.
The challenge of manufacturing and access in a pandemic
The global nature of a pandemic means that any vaccine or medicine that is successfully developed will be needed immediately all over the world. That means that the challenge we face is not only one of R&D but one of manufacturing at scale, and equitable access. CEPI has worked at unprecedented speed to initiate its COVID-19 vaccine development programme, but CEPI alone cannot solve some of the broader issues which the newly formed ACT Accelerator has committed to address.
All ACT Accelerator partners across the public, private and philanthropic sectors have committed to "a shared aim of equitable global access to innovative tools for COVID-19 for all", and similar pledges from many leaders of governments and industry — which are crucial to make this aim deliverable — were made at the launch event.
The challenge presented by COVID-19 is vast. But today's announcement represents a tremendous step forward in the world coming together to tackle this deadly disease.
CEPI is enormously proud to be part of this historic collaboration and would like to thank and pay tribute to the WHO for its leadership as well as all the other global leaders who took part today.
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