Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator

[3] The ACT Accelerator is a multinational collaboration, and multistakeholder initiative including the World Health Organization, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), FIND,[4] GAVI the Vaccine Alliance,[5] the Global Fund, UNICEF, Unitaid, Wellcome, the World Bank and governments, to raise financial support of accelerated research and development, production, and globally-equitable access to COVID-19 tests, therapies, and vaccines.

In March 2020, G20 leaders had called for a cross-discipline support structure to enable partners to share resources and knowledge and in April 2020 it was launched by WHO, European Commission, France and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

[10] Diagnostics are the most important medical technology available to monitor and control the spread of COVID-19,[10][11] to avoid repeated lockdowns, which threaten economies and ways of life.

[10] The pillar for health systems analyzes needs and resources in some 100 countries to identify problems, capacity, and requirements for access to and implementation of COVID-19 tools across world regions.

[10] The COVAX pillar has the goal of facilitating licensure of several COVID-19 vaccines, influencing equitable pricing, and providing equal access for up to 2 billion doses by the end of 2021 to protect frontline healthcare workers and people with high-risk of COVID-19 infection, particularly in low-to-middle income countries.

[14][15] As of December 2020, CEPI supported the vaccine research organizations and programs of AstraZeneca/University of Oxford (AZD1222), Clover Biopharmaceuticals (SCB-2019), CureVac (Zorecimeran/CVnCoV), Inovio (INO-4800), Institut Pasteur (MV-SARS-CoV-2), Moderna (mRNA-1273), Novavax (NVX-CoV2373), SK bioscience (GBP510), and Hong Kong University.

[30][14][32] By early May 2020, the United Kingdom, Canada, Belgium, Norway, Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands had already donated US$915 million to CEPI.

[40][41] Belgium, Norway, Switzerland, Germany, and the Netherlands have been major contributors to the CEPI effort for COVID-19 vaccine research in Europe.

[43] On 22 July 2020, China announced that it planned to provide a US$1 billion loan to make its vaccine accessible for countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

[44] On 24 August 2020, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang announced it would provide five Southeast Asian countries of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam priority access to the vaccine once it was fully developed.