Finland pledges €36m to EU coronavirus vaccine fund

The European Commission and its partners have launched a pledging effort, the Coronavirus Global Response, to raise EUR 7.5 billion of funding to develop diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines against the COVID-19 disease and to strengthen healthcare systems.

Finland pledged EUR 36 million in the meeting that kick-started the global pledging effort on Monday, said a government press release.

On the 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 EUR 2.5 million to the global vaccine alliance Gavi and EUR 10 million 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 Social Affairs and Health Minister Aino-Kaisa Pekonen.

Pekonen, in her address, said, “It is important to ensure that vaccines, treatments and medicines for COVID-19 are made available globally, regardless of where they were developed.”

In addition to supporting global vaccine cooperation, the release said, Finland needs to reinforce domestic vaccine development and raise the level of vaccine research and expertise nationally so that we can stay abreast of global competition and, at best, ensure access to a vaccine in Finland.

Therefore, the government has granted EUR 6 million to the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, mainly for development of rapid diagnostic and antibody testing methods and for monitoring of the effectiveness of measures to curb the spread of coronavirus.

In addition, the government is preparing significant funding to support national vaccine research.