Funding the Development and Manufacturing of COVID-19 Vaccines

Abstract

The SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, has quickly spread worldwide. On January 30, 2020, the WHO declared COVID-19 to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern and advised all governments to prepare for transmission in their countries. On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared that it had become a pandemic. There is uncertainty about what will happen next, e.g., the pandemic could involve multiple simultaneous epidemics of COVID-19 over 1-3 years, and/or SARS-CoV-2 could become a globally endemic virus. In this paper, we begin by arguing that the rapid development and scale-up of COVID-19 vaccines has become critical to reducing the morbidity, mortality, and economic damage associated with a pandemic. We show that new funding for COVID-19 vaccine development is required for all development stages and we estimate how much funding is needed. We examine ways to mobilize such funding and explore potential funding vehicles, including CEPI, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, as well as the governance of such vehicles. Finally, we highlight issues such as vaccine manufacturing, intellectual property, global access, regulatory approval, and ethical and trial design considerations in conducting trials in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak.