¶ Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator
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The Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-Accelerator) is a multinational funding initiative hosted by the World Health Organization, alongside the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the Global Fund, UNICEF, Unitaid, Wellcome Trust and the World Bank.
It was founded to raise financial support for accelerated research and development, production, and access to COVID-19 tests, therapies, and vaccines.[1]
¶ History
ACT-Accelerator was launched on April 24, 2020.[1:1][2]
The United Nations Foundation launched the ACT Together Fund to support the ACT-Accelerator.[3]
Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance hosted the COVAX AMC 2021 Investment Opportunity Launch Event, also called One World Protected, on April 15, 2021. It served as a preliminary fundraising opportunity - an "Advanced Market Commitment" - for COVAX, the vaccines arm of the ACT-Accelerator.[4] COVAX was fully launched by Gavi at the Global Vaccine Summit on June 4, 2021.[5]
In January 2022, Ridgeback Biotherapeutics and Merck announced they would supply UNICEF with 3 million doses of molnupiravir, an oral mutagenic anti-viral compound marketed as a COVID-19 treatment, through ACT-Accelerator.[6]
In September 2022, a report published by Politico and WELT criticized ACT-Accelerator's structure, which "diminished accountability."[7]
¶ Funding
ACT-Accelerator is funded by:[8]
- Analog Devices Foundation
- Asia Philanthropy Circle
- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
- BlackRock
- Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI)
- Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI)
- Cisco
- COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund
- Diagnostics Consortium for COVID-19
- Fidelity Investments
- FIFA Foundation
- Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND)
- Gates Philanthropy Partners
- Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance
- Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
- Go Give One Campaign
- Goldman Sachs
- Mastercard
- Nestlé
- Procter & Gamble
- Reed Hastings
- Rockefeller Foundation
- Shell
- Thistledown Foundation
- TikTok
- UBS
- UNICEF
- Unitaid
- United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
- Vaccine Forward
- Visa Foundation
- Vital Strategies
- Wellcome Trust
- WHO Foundation
- World Health Organization (WHO)
¶ Publications
- December 14, 2022: Update on the rollout of COVID-19 tools: A report from the ACT-A Tracking & Monitoring Task Force
¶ External links
What is the ACT-Accelerator. World Health Organization. Retrieved February 12, 2023, from http://archive.today/2023.02.12-175054/https://www.who.int/initiatives/act-accelerator/about ↩︎ ↩︎
Moon, S., Armstrong, J., Hutler, B., Upshur, R., Katz, R., Atuire, C., Bhan, A., Emanuel, E., Faden, R., Ghimire, P., Greco, D., Ho, C. W., Kochhar, S., Schaefer, G. O., Shamsi-Gooshki, E., Singh, J. A., Smith, M. J., & Wolff, J. (2021). Governing the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator: towards greater participation, transparency, and accountability. The Lancet, 399(10323), 487–494. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)02344-8 ↩︎
ACT Together Fund. United Nations Foundation. Retrieved August 18, 2021, from https://web.archive.org/web/20210818045047/https://unfoundation.org/acttogetherfund/ ↩︎
Sharafudeen, M., & Mazur, I. (2021, March 29). United States to host launch event for Gavi COVAX AMC 2021 investment opportunity. Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. https://web.archive.org/web/20220820234257/https://www.gavi.org/news/media-room/united-states-host-launch-event-gavi-covax-amc-2021-investment-opportunity ↩︎
Gavi COVAX AMC. (2022, July 15). Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. https://web.archive.org/web/20220820234044/https://www.gavi.org/gavi-covax-amc ↩︎
Linnane, C. (2022, January 18). Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics to supply 3 million doses of COVID antiviral to Unicef in 2022. MarketWatch. http://archive.today/2022.01.18-162625/https://www.marketwatch.com/story/merck-and-ridgeback-biotherapeutics-to-supply-3-million-doses-of-covid-antiviral-to-unicef-in-2022-2022-01-18 ↩︎
Banco, E., Furlong, A., & Pfahler, L. (2022, September 14). How Bill Gates and partners used their clout to control the global Covid response — with little oversight. Politico. https://web.archive.org/web/20220915020901/https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/14/global-covid-pandemic-response-bill-gates-partners-00053969 ↩︎
Access to COVID-19 tools funding commitment tracker. (2022, April 1). World Health Organization. https://web.archive.org/web/20220407020319/https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/access-to-covid-19-tools-tracker ↩︎