Today, Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-Accelerator) released its consolidated investment case, along with budgeted plans from member organizations.
Launched in late April 2020, at an event jointly organized by the Director-General of the World Health Organization, the President of France, the President of the European Commission and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, ACT-Accelerator brings governments together , health organizations, scientists, companies, civil society and philanthropists who have come together to accelerate the end of the pandemic.
Since the launch of ACT-Accelerator, partner organizations have moved rapidly to develop costly and implementable plans designed to contribute to the end of the pandemic through accelerated development, equitable allocation, and large-scale delivery of new tools to rapidly reduce mortality and serious disease, protecting health systems and restoring global social and economic activity in the short term, and facilitating high-level control of COVID-19 disease in the medium term.
ACT-Accelerator Investment Case and Budgeted Plans
The ACT-Accelerator investment case and plans published by organizations leading each of the ‘pillars’ show a path to accelerated development, equitable allocation and expanded delivery of 500 million diagnostic tests to LMICs to Mid-2021, 245 million courses of treatment for LMIC in mid-2021, and 2 billion doses of vaccines, of which 50% will go to LMIC in late 2021.
To accomplish this, the budgeted plans presented today call for $ 31.3 billion in funding for diagnostics, therapies, and vaccines, of which $ 3.4 billion has been pledged so far.[2]. Thus, an additional $ 27.9 billion is needed, including $ 13.7 billion to meet immediate needs (i.e. $ 17.1 billion is required immediately, of which $ 3.4 billion has been pledged) .
The investment required is significant, but pales in comparison to the cost of COVID-19: the total cost of labor for the ACT-Accelerator is less than a tenth of what the IMF estimates the world economy is losing each month due to the pandemic. 468,000 thousand people have already lost their lives.
The tools developed will benefit the entire world; ACT-Accelerator Pillars will also purchase and deliver tools to ensure LMICs have access.
The ACT-Accelerator investment case is available here.
ACT-Accelerator Abutments
ACT-Accelerator is led by the work of partner organizations that collaborate under four pillars.
The diagnostic pillar is co-led by FIND and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and aims to save 9 million lives and prevent 1.6 billion additional infections through the power of equitable access to simple tests. , accurate and affordable. With sufficient funds, you can bring 2-3 high-quality rapid tests to the market, train 10,000 healthcare professionals in 50 countries, and establish tests for 500 million people in low- and middle-income countries. Its success will be determined by how quickly testing, tracing, and isolation strategies can be implemented to minimize disruption to health services and prepare countries for effective implementation of therapies and vaccines once they become available. The investment case is available here.
The therapeutic pillar is led by Unitaid and the Wellcome Trust (on behalf of the COVID-19 Therapeutic Accelerator) and seeks to accelerate the development and equitable delivery of treatments at all stages of the disease, ensuring that they are accessible to all, regardless of geography and level of economic resource. It focuses on the development, manufacturing, procurement, and equitable distribution of 245 million treatment courses for populations in low- and middle-income countries in 12 months. The investment case is available here.
The Vaccine Pillar combines CEPI’s leadership in vaccine development and manufacturing investment with GAVI’s track record in revolutionizing access and delivery, and oversight of WHO regulation, policy and allocation. Their role is to ensure that vaccines are developed as quickly as possible, manufactured in the correct volumes without compromising safety, and delivered to those who need them most. The current estimate of delivering 2 billion doses by the end of 2021, assuming that a safe and effective vaccine will be developed in the near future, is up to $ 18.1 billion. In addition, 950 million doses will have to be purchased by high-income, self-financing countries and upper-middle-income countries through the COVAX Fund. These numbers will become clearer once we have a better idea of, among other factors, the technology on which successful vaccine candidates will be based and the number of doses needed to protect people from COVID-19. The investment case is available here.
The Health Systems Connector is the fourth pillar of the ACT-Accelerator and is compatible with the other three by ensuring that health systems and local community networks can fully utilize these and other essential tools in their battle against COVID-19. . This pillar is led by the World Bank and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) and has the support of WHO. Its objective is to develop the capacity, such as laboratory capacity, training of laboratory and health personnel and the administration of protective equipment for health workers, necessary to implement the new tools effectively when they are ready. It also works on system innovations to complement product deployment, such as contact tracking, social distancing, and isolation approaches, as well as the community involvement necessary to sustain them. Global health security and the fight against COVID-19 depends on underpinning health systems around the world, now.
Call to action
Since its launch, many governments and companies have expressed their commitment to ACT-Accelerator and have made financial promises. To date, the contributing countries have committed a total of US $ 3.4. The financing gap is $ 27.9 billion.
On June 27, the Global Goal: United for our Future, Campaign, Concert and Summit will call on citizens to address global injustices using our collective voice to drive change for everyone, everywhere. World leaders, corporations and philanthropists will announce new commitments to help develop an equitable distribution of COVID-19 tests, treatments and vaccines, as well as to rebuild communities devastated by the pandemic. Join Global Citizen, the European Commission, the best artists and world leaders to end COVID-19, create equity for all, and fight for the world we want. Link: https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/connect/globalgoalunite/
Notes to editors
Access to the COVID-19 ACT-Accelerator Tools is a new and innovative global collaboration to accelerate the development, production and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, therapies and diagnostics. It was created in response to a call from the G20 leaders in March and launched by the WHO, the EC, France and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in April 2020.
ACT-Accelerator is neither a decision-making body nor a new organization, but works to accelerate collaborative efforts among existing organizations to end the pandemic. It is a collaborative framework designed to bring key players to the table with the goal of ending the pandemic as quickly as possible by reducing COVID-19 mortality and severe illness through accelerated development, equitable allocation and expanded delivery of vaccines, therapies, and diagnostics, thereby protecting health systems and restoring societies and economies in the short term. It draws on the experience of the world’s leading health organizations that are addressing the world’s toughest health challenges and that, by working together, can unlock new and more ambitious results against COVID-19. Its members share a commitment to ensure that all people have access to all the tools necessary to defeat COVID-19 and work with unprecedented levels of partnership to achieve this.
The ACT-Accelerator has four work areas: diagnosis, therapy, vaccines, and the health system connector. Cross-cutting, all of this is the access and allocation workflow.
For more information, see ACT-Accelerator.
