The European Commission and its partners have launched a pledging effort, the Coronavirus Global Response, to raise 7.5 billion euros of funding to develop diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines against the COVID-19 disease and to strengthen healthcare systems.
According to the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, "Finland pledged 36 million euros in the meeting that kick-started the global pledging effort on 4 May 2020."
But that does not mean that the Government is going to allocate an additional 36 million for this purpose.
On one hand, Finland’s pledge consists of funding granted earlier this spring to the World Health Organization (WHO) and to international vaccine research.
On the other hand, it includes new funding pledges of 2.5 million euros to the global vaccine alliance Gavi and 10 million euros to increase humanitarian aid addressing the coronavirus pandemic.
The high-level meeting to launch the pledging effort was attended by leaders from a number of countries. Finland’s address in the meeting was delivered by Minister of Social Affairs and Health Aino-Kaisa Pekonen.
“It is important to ensure that vaccines, treatments and medicines for COVID-19 are made available globally, regardless of where they were developed,” Minister Pekonen said in her address.
The development of a vaccine against coronavirus requires high-quality research and funding. Developing a vaccine against coronavirus is expected to take at least one year, even though every effort is made to accelerate the process.
National funding
In addition to supporting global vaccine cooperation, Finland needs to reinforce domestic vaccine development and raise the level of vaccine research and expertise nationally so that the country can stay abreast of global competition and, at best, ensure access to a vaccine in Finland.
Therefore, the Government has granted 6 million euros to the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, mainly for the development of rapid diagnostic and antibody testing methods and for the monitoring of the effectiveness of measures to curb the spread of coronavirus.
In addition, the Government is preparing more funding to support national vaccine research.
