New commitments from governments international organizations and the private sector support unified approach to end pandemic backing a response of unprecedented scale scope and speed through the Access to COVID 19 Tools Accelerator as pandemic claims more than 1 million lives Recent Commitments at a Glance United Kingdom 571m US 732m for COVAX pillar of the Access to COVID 19 Tools ACT Accelerator of which up to 500m US 641m is to support low and middle income countries This includes a commitment to match 1 for every US 4 committed by others up to 250m US 321m Canada CAD 440m US 332m for the COVAX pillar of the ACT Accelerator of which CAD 220 US 166m is to support low middle income countries Germany EUR 100m US 117m for the COVAX pillar of the ACT Accelerator all of which is to support low and middle income countries Sweden US 10m for the COVAX pillar of the ACT Accelerator all of which is to support low and middle income countries World Bank US 12 billion to support developing countries to purchase COVID 19 vaccines as soon as they are available to be ratified by their shareholders A coalition of 16 pharmaceutical companies and the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation signed an agreement to cooperate on vaccine manufacturing and to scale up production The United Nations and its partners today welcomed a monumental show of solidarity as governments private sector civil society and international organizations committed support to the Access to COVID 19 Tools ACT Accelerator initiative launched by the World Health Organization alongside international partners Today nearly US 1 billion in new financing has been committed to the initiative the world s most comprehensive multilateral end to end solution to the devastating COVID 19 pandemic The ACT Accelerator which was co launched by the World Health Organization European Commission France and the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation just five months ago needs an additional US 35 billion to realize its goals of producing 2 billion vaccine doses 245 million treatments and 500 million tests The new commitments to the initiative are welcome and will be leveraged to catalyze further funding to continue the ACT Accelerator s groundbreaking work Most urgently the ACT Accelerator requires US 15 billion to support immediate capacity building for research and development manufacturing procurement and delivery systems by the end of the year Convening a high level event at the 75th Session of the UN General Assembly to urgently mobilize support for the ACT Accelerator Secretary General Ant nio Guterres commended on the extraordinary international effort to address a human crisis like no other in our lifetimes adding that more efforts must be made to further deepen the remarkable progress so far It is in every country s national and economic self interest to work together to massively expand access to tests and treatments and to support a vaccine as a global public good a people s vaccine available and affordable for everyone everywhere The ACT Accelerator including its COVAX Facility is the vehicle to get us there Investing in the ACT Accelerator will accelerate every country s own recovery said Mr Guterres who co hosted the event with the United Kingdom s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab South Africa s Health Minister Zweli Mkhize and the Director General of World Health Organization Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus Unprecedented Global Collaboration The ACT Accelerator which was launched just five months ago is an unprecedented global collaboration of the world s top international health organizations working together to accelerate the development production and equitable delivery of COVID 19 tests treatments and vaccines We have a duty to ensure vaccines treatments and tests for COVID 19 are available to all stopping the global spread of the pandemic protects the British people and will put humanity on the road to recovery Collaboration through the ACT Accelerator is critical to promoting development production and access for all countries said UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab The United Kingdom recently committed up to 571m approximately US 732m for COVAX This includes up to 500m for the Gavi Advanced Market Commitment for COVID 19 COVAX AMC vaccines a financing instrument that incentivises vaccine manufacturers to produce sufficient COVID 19 vaccines to ensure access for developing countries Today the UK Foreign Secretary called for more support pledging that this 500m commitment would include 1 IS 1 29 in matched funding for every US 4 committed by others for up to 250m approximately US 321m Germany Canada and Sweden have also made new commitments to the COVAX AMC of Euro 100 million CAD 220 million and US 10 million respectively These are eligible for matching with today s UK matching commitment Science is giving us solutions in the form of new tests therapeutics and hopefully a vaccine But science and solutions will be ineffective without solidarity said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus WHO Director General I am grateful for the generous financial commitments made today but we still have a significant funding gap to close Fully financing the ACT Accelerator will help to control the pandemic restore confidence and stimulate the global recovery Frankly this is not a financial challenge it s a test of solidarity This is a moment for saying no to nationalism and yes to our shared humanity Because ultimately the ACT Accelerator is not delivering merely vaccines diagnostics and therapeutics It s delivering something far more important hope We must confront this health crisis as a global challenge together in solidarity and cooperation with one another working toward a global solution We have to generate the key tests treatments and vaccines that we all need and make sure they are distributed equitably to people who most need them regardless of where they live and whether their country is wealthy or not said South Africa s Health Minister Zweli Mkhize adding that large parts of the population especially in developing countries remain vulnerable and marginalized during this pandemic Today s event highlighted the substantial results achieved by the Access to COVID 19 Tools Accelerator initiative since its launch the availability of 120 million affordable and high quality rapid tests for low and middle income countries a breakthrough in trials with and a rapid rollout of Dexamethasone the only drug found to make a significant difference to patient mortality the creation of the COVAX Facility the global mechanism to ensure equitable access to eventual COVID 19 vaccines regardless of income comprising 168 economies and the largest and most diverse vaccine portfolio in the world with nine candidate vaccines under evaluation eight of them in clinical trials In another significant show of support a coalition of 16 pharmaceutical companies and the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation signed an agreement to cooperate on vaccine manufacturing and to scale up production at an unprecedented speed ensuring that approved vaccines are more broadly accessible and distributed as early as possible Bill Gates Co Chair of the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation said One thing I ve learned studying the history of pandemics is that they create a surprising dynamic when it comes to self interest and altruism Pandemics are rare cases where a country s instinct to help itself is tightly aligned with its instinct to help others The self interested thing and the altruistic thing making sure poor nations have access to vaccines are one and the same A number of countries most recently the United Kingdom and Canada are good models for what other wealthy nations should do They have donated enough money for COVAX the vaccine pillar of the ACT Accelerator to procure probably hundreds of millions of vaccine doses for poor countries But more will be needed and I hope wealthy nations will continue to be generous The World Bank unveiled plans this week for a significant financial commitment to support developing countries to purchase COVID 19 vaccines as soon as they are available World Bank President David Malpass said that once the plans are ratified by stakeholders having up to US 12 billion available in finance will be a game changer because once a safe and effective vaccine is available it will allow people to resume their lives with confidence Investing in Global Recovery The ACT Accelerator Investment Case illustrates the considerable economic benefits of collectively accelerating the development and deployment of tools to rapidly reduce the risk of severe COVID 19 disease globally Prior to UNGA 2020 the ACT Accelerator has raised US 3 billion out of a need of US 38 billion More detail can be found in the Act Accelerator investment case The economic rationale for investing in an approach that can accelerate the end of the COVID 19 crisis remains clear Fully financing the initiative to help shorten the duration of the crisis would pay back this investment in less than 36 hours once global mobility and trade alone are restored Notes to Editors The Access to COVID 19 Tools ACT Accelerator is the proven up and running global collaboration to accelerate the development production and equitable access to COVID 19 tests treatments and vaccines It was set up in response to a call from G20 leaders in March and launched by the WHO European Commission France and The Bill Melinda Gates Foundation in April 2020 The ACT Accelerator is not a decision making body or a new organization it works to speed up collaborative efforts among existing organizations to end the pandemic It is a framework for collaboration that has been designed to bring key players around the table with the goal of ending the pandemic as quickly as possible through the accelerated development equitable allocation and scaled up delivery of tests treatments and vaccines thereby protecting health systems and restoring societies and economies in the near term It draws on the experience of leading global health organizations which are tackling the world s toughest health challenges and who by working together are able to unlock new and more ambitious results against COVID 19 Its members share a commitment to ensure all people have access to all the tools needed to defeat COVID 19 and to work with unprecedented levels of partnership to achieve it The ACT Accelerator comprises four pillars diagnostics therapeutics vaccines and health system strengthening The diagnostics pillar co convened by the Global Fund and FIND is focused on bringing to market 2 3 high quality rapid tests training 10 000 healthcare professionals across 50 countries and establishing testing for 500 million people in Low and Middle Income countries by mid 2021 The therapeutics pillar is led by Unitaid and The Wellcome Trust Therapeutics can play a role in all stages of COVID 19 disease to prevent infection suppress symptoms and spread of infection to others treat or prevent symptoms as a life saving treatment for severe symptoms and as a treatment that can speed up recovery The aim in the next 12 months is to develop manufacture and distribute 245 million treatments helping COVID 19 sufferers to recover from the disease The vaccines pillar convened by CEPI Gavi and WHO is speeding up the search for an effective vaccine for all countries At the same time it is supporting the building of manufacturing capabilities and buying supply ahead of time so that 2 billion doses can be fairly distributed by the end of 2021 The health systems connector pillar led by the World Bank and the Global Fund is working to ensure that these tools can reach the people who need them Cross cutting all of these is the workstream on Access Allocation hosted by the World Health Organization For more information please visit WHO ACT Accelerator Website who int initiatives act accelerator Status Report Plan bit ly ACTAcceleratorStatusReport Economic Investment Case bit ly ACTAcceleratorInvestmentCase UN COVID 19 Response Portal un org en coronavirus Archived video of the event is available on UN Web TV