The Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator

The Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, is a groundbreaking global collaboration to accelerate development, production, and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines.

There is no time to waste in the fight against COVID-19.
No-one is safe until everyone is safe.

Launched at the end of April 2020, at an event co-hosted by the Director-General of the World Health Organization, the President of France, the President of the European Commission, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator brings together governments, scientists, businesses, civil society, and philanthropists and global health organizations (the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, CEPI, FIND, Gavi, The Global Fund, Unitaid, Wellcome, the WHO, and the World Bank).

These organizations have joined forces to speed up an end to the pandemic by supporting the development and equitable distribution of the tests, treatments and vaccines the world needs to reduce mortality and severe disease, restoring full societal and economic activity globally in the near term, and facilitating high-level control of COVID-19 disease in the medium term.

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Frequently asked questions

Commitment and Call to Action

COVAX: Working for global equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines

The push for a COVID-19 vaccine

Resources

This is a unique partnership of many of the world's international health organizations who have come together to share, and build on, individual expertise to create a powerful global solution that will ensure equity in access to tests, vaccines, treatments across the world with one goal: to reduce the burden of the COVID-19 pandemic by addressing the cause.

Global research on coronavirus disease (COVID-19)

Accelerating a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine

The ACT-Accelerator is organized into four pillars of work: diagnostics, treatment, vaccines and health system strengthening. Each pillar is vital to the overall effort and involves innovation and collaboration.

Cross-cutting all of the work, and fundamental to the goals of the ACT-Accelerator, is the Access and Allocation workstream that is led by WHO and is developing the principles, framework and mechanisms needed to ensure the fair and equitable allocation of these tools.

ACT-Accelerator investment case

Focus areas

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Diagnostics

The diagnostics pillar, co-convened by the Global Fund and FIND is focused on bringing to market 2–3 high-quality rapid tests, training 10,000 healthcare professionals across 50 countries and establishing testing for 500 million people in Low and Middle-Income countries by mid-2021.

Diagnostics Investment Case

Led by FIND and Global Fund.

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Therapeutics

Therapeutics can play a role in all stages of COVID-19 disease: to prevent infection; suppress symptoms and spread of infection to others; treat or prevent symptoms; as a life-saving treatment for severe symptoms; and as a treatment that can speed up recovery. The aim in the next 12 months is to develop, manufacture and distribute 245 million treatments, helping COVID-19 sufferers to recover from the disease. The therapeutics pillar is led by Unitaid and Wellcome.

Therapeutics Investment Case

Led by Wellcome and Unitaid.

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Vaccines

The vaccines pillar, convened by CEPI, Gavi and WHO, is speeding up the search for an effective vaccine for all countries. At the same time, it is supporting the building of manufacturing capabilities, and buying supply, ahead of time so that 2 billion doses can be fairly distributed by the end of 2021.

Vaccines Investment Case

Led by CEPI, GAVI and WHO.

WHO/P. Bagla

Health systems

The health systems connector pillar, led by the World Bank and the Global Fund, is working to ensure that these tools can reach the people who need them.

Led by World Bank and Global Fund.