Gates Foundation, Pharmaceutical Companies Join to
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THE BILL AND MELINDA Gates Foundation has joined forces with 16 pharmaceutical companies to advance manufacturing and equitably distribute coronavirus vaccines.
Mark Suzman, CEO of the Gates Foundation, announced on Wednesday that 16 CEOs signed a communique stating their "commitments to help ensure equitable & effective global allocation of #COVID19 interventions."
"[The partnership] will continue to do our part to ensure that people in every country around the world, wealthy or not, have access to the diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines that will help in this pandemic," a video announcement said. "We'll scale up these innovations as quickly as possible. And we'll do everything in our power to make sure they reach everyone who needs them, no matter where they live or what they can pay."
The only way to eliminate the threat of COVID-19, Microsoft founder Bill Gates said, is the ability to have the capacity to produce billions of vaccines, have the funding to pay for them and have the systems in place to deliver them everywhere.
The billionaire philanthropist stressed that low- and lower-middle-income countries are home to nearly half of the world's population but would only be able to pay for 14% of their population to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
The only way to eliminate COVID-19 somewhere, Gates said, is to eliminate it everywhere.
"Unprecedented collaboration across every part of society is required to close the gap and help ensure that tests, treatments, and vaccines do not just go to the highest bidder," the foundation said. "Today's commitment from 16 life sciences companies is a great step."
The 16 pharmaceutical companies that signed the agreement include AstraZeneca, Bayer, bioMérieux, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Eisai, Eli Lilly, Gilead, GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co., Merck KGaA, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche and Sanofi.
Global cases of COVID-19 have risen to more than 33.76 million and deaths recently surpassed 1 million. The U.S. is leading in both, with more than 7.2 million reported cases and more than 206,430 reported deaths. India has the second most cases, with more than 6.22 million, followed by Brazil, which has more than 4.77 million cases.
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https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/artic...s-vaccines
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