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 British-based
Wellcome Trust said the initiative, dubbed COVID-Zero, is aimed at
the private sector and it is urging chief executives of
multinational companies to join the coalition and save lives.
An initial $8 billion by the end of April - a fraction of the sums
wealthy governments have injected into struggling economies - would
be enough to develop new COVID-19 tests, drugs and vaccines and to
begin scaling up production, the fund said.
"This is a global issue that will continue to plague the world and
businesses for months, if not years, to come," said Jeremy Farrar,
Wellcome's director.
"We want business leaders to give a small proportion of the money
they are dedicating to coping with this crisis to solving it. We
hope that governments will follow their example."
Wellcome says that $2 billion of the initial $8 billion needed would
be used to help poorer and more vulnerable countries to build a
stockpile of masks, medicines and other defences against future
outbreaks.
The COVID-19 disease pandemic has triggered a sharp downturn in an
already slowing global economy and sparked a rout across financial
markets, wiping about $15 trillion from stock markets alone.
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More than 1.32 million people have been reported infected by the novel
coronavirus and 74,087 have died.
A Reuters snap poll of more 50 economists in North America, Europe and Asia over
April 1-3 showed that the global economy is expected to contract by 1.2% this
year, compared with a forecast of 1.6% expansion in a poll three weeks ago.
Scientists around the world are working to develop vaccines and test existing
drugs that could be potential treatments for COVID-19 while also seeking to
improve diagnostic tests.
But Farrar warned that these teams are in danger of running out of funding,
without which new treatments might never get out of laboratories to reach
clinical trials and, ultimately, the people who need them.
"Drugs, vaccines and rapid diagnostics are the only way we have of saving lives,
bringing this pandemic to an end and preventing it reappearing," Farrar said.
"This is the only exit strategy, but we do not have the funding we need."
(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by David Goodman)
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