The vaccine alliance group GAVI, in collaboration with the COVAX Facility set up by World Health Organization (WHO), has raised more than $2 billion to distribute one billion COVID-19 vaccine shots to poor countries.
According to GAVI, the funds for the advance market commitment (AMC) will allow them to buy around one billion COVID-19 shots and distribute them to 92 countries that are otherwise unable to afford them.
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“We’ve seen sovereign and private donors from across the world dig deep and meet this target and help ensure that every country will get access to COVID vaccines, not just the wealthy few,” GAVI chief Seth Berkley said.
Another $360 million has been added to the total after the European Commission, France, Spain, South Korea, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledged their support to the cause. The initial target of $2 billion for this year has already been met and extra funds will help to exceed the target.
GAVI also stated that they will need another $5 billion in 2021 to procure COVID-19 vaccines as they progress from the development stage to the approval stage.
Earlier, the American drugmaker Pfizer and its partner BioNTech revealed that their vaccine had shown positive results in their initial trials and claim that it is 90 percent effective. They have also shown interest in supplying it to the COVAX facility.
Berkley was also hopeful of holding talks with the US President-elect, Joe Biden, regarding the COVAX plan.
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“It’s positive that the incoming administration has already established a COVID-19 task force filled with many scientists we know are believers in science and moving this forward,” he said.
The US is already one of GAVI’s biggest supporters. they care enormously about vaccines for the developing world and I suspect that we will have continuing conversations about how we can collaborate with them.
The WHO developed the COVAX facility in April, keeping in view the demand for the COVID-19 vaccine and ensuring that the vaccine is distributed equally.
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