President Joe Biden announced that the U.S. is set to provide $4 billion to the COVAX Facility to support access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines.
Money appropriated by a December 2020 Congressional vote will comprise an initial $2 billion contribution to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance for the COVAX advance market commitment (AMC) covering 92 low- and middle-income economies, according to a White House Statement.
Additionally, the U.S. will release a further $2 billion through 2021 and 2022, with the first $500 million set to be made available when existing donor pledges are fulfilled and initial doses are delivered to AMC countries.
Biden also called on the G7 and other partners to work alongside Gavi to continue to build support for global COVID-19 vaccination, targeting urgent vaccine manufacturing, supply and delivery needs.
“The United States’ contribution is designated to help Gavi prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus through vaccine procurement and delivery for the world’s most vulnerable,” the White House statement read. “In partnership with Gavi, the bulk of these funds will be targeted to support direct vaccine procurement, and a portion will also support broader country readiness and vaccine service delivery.”
COVAX has been collecting pledges from a number of companies over the past several months, promising the delivery of vaccines to the AMC to reach the 92 low- and middle-income economies.
In October, Sanofi (NSDQ:SNY) and GSK (LON: GSK), which have teamed up to produce a COVID-19 vaccine candidate, vowed to produce 200 million doses of the vaccine for COVAX. That vaccine candidate is still in the midst of clinical trials and has not yet been authorized for use.
Since then, Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and BioNTech (NSDQ:BNTX) said last month that they would supply up to 40 million doses of their COVID-19 vaccine this year to COVAX. In announcing a submission for emergency use listing (EUL) to the World Health Organization (WHO) today, Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) said today that it had previously agreed on plans to enter into an advance purchase agreement for up to 500 million doses of the vaccine to be provided to COVAX through 2022.
Tell Us What You Think!