The leaders of France, Norway, Italy and Germany have pledged 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 on Saturday, they said that they were building on the commitments made by G20 leaders and supporting the call to action from the World Health Organization 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 said.
“We are determined to work together, with all those who share our commitment to international co-operation,” they added.
The release was signed by Giuseppe Conte, Prime Minister of Italy; Emmanuel Macron, President of France; Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany; and Erna Solberg, Prime Minister of Norway. It was also signed by Charles Michel, President of the European Council and Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission.
The leaders said they aimed to raise an initial 7.5 billion euros ($8 billion) in an online pledging conference on May 4 “to make up the global funding shortfall estimated by the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB) and others.”
They said more funding would be required to achieve their aim of manufacturing and delivering medicines on a global scale and “to achieve universal access to vaccination, treatment and testing.”
CNN