Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator
Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator ( ACT Accelerator for short ) is an international campaign that was launched on April 24, 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO) and a group of health stakeholders . It should help to ensure that tools against COVID-19 are developed more quickly and made available to all countries in a fair manner.
The goals are the development, production and fair distribution of COVID-19 vaccines , drugs and tests as well as supporting health systems in dealing with the coronavirus.
working area
Two actors should assume equal responsibility for each of the three pillars of the campaign:
- For vaccines, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (GAVI) lead the way.
- The COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator , a joint project of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust , is to work with UNITAID on treatments .
- In the area of testing, the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) and the Global Fund are linked.
- The WHO is to play a prominent role in the overarching work area “Support for Health Systems”.
financing
A first donor conference was jointly convened by the European Union, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Canada, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom. At this event on May 4, 2020, more than 40 countries, United Nations bodies and charitable foundations pledged to provide funds totaling 7.4 billion euros. The larger states Russia, India and the USA were missing.
Another step was the “Global Goal: Unite for Our Future” summit on June 27, 2020. It obtained further financial commitments from governments, companies and donors at a digital summit conference and a worldwide virtual concert.
Use of the results
The results of publicly funded research, ie data, knowledge and intellectual property, should be publicly available insofar as this is necessary for worldwide use and worldwide access.
The funds will go to organizations working to ensure that products are available and accessible at affordable prices around the world, especially in the most vulnerable countries.
Private sector partners are not asked to surrender their property rights. But there are also commitments from donors who support worldwide access and fair use of new diagnostics, treatments and vaccines.
Health scholars see a triangular conflict here between those who demand access to drugs as global public goods , pharmaceutical companies who compromise but still insist on patent-based exclusive rights, and nation-state tendencies toward "vaccine nationalism".
Individual evidence
- ↑ https://www.who.int/initiatives/act-accelerator
- ↑ https://www.finddx.org/covid-19/
- ↑ European Commission: The Worldwide Coronavirus Crisis Response. Questions and answers. [1]
- ↑ European Commission: The Worldwide Coronavirus Crisis Response. Questions and answers. [2]
- ↑ Der Tagesspiegel, May 21, 2020: Global competition for a drug against Covid-19. The top secret funding for the coronavirus vaccine [3]
- ↑ https://www.globalcitizen.org/de/connect/globalgoalunite/
- ↑ European Commission: The Worldwide Coronavirus Crisis Response. Questions and answers. [4]
- ↑ Wolfgang Hein, Anne Paschke: Access to COVID-19 Vaccines and Medicines: A Global Public Good , GIGA Focus Global, number 04, July 2020, ISSN 1862-3581 [5]