Pharma firms, G20 leaders pledge vaccines for poorer nations
(VOVWORLD) - G20 countries have pledged to step up the production and distribution of coronavirus vaccines to poorer countries as leaders of the most industrialized countries met virtually for the Global Health Summit in Rome.
 The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine (Photo: VNA) |
Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson told the summit on Friday they will supply around 3.5 billion vaccine doses at cost or discount to middle and low income countries this year and next.
Meanwhile the European Union pledged to donate 100 million doses to developing countries and invest 1.2 billion USD in vaccine manufacturing hubs in Africa.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced a 50-billion-USD plan to end the pandemic focused heavily on expanding vaccines.
The summit ended with a Rome declaration, calling on voluntary licenses and technology transfers to patent pooling and flexibility on intellectual property rights.