Wellcome Trust urges firms to donate £6bn to medical coronavirus fight
Health research charity the Wellcome Trust has urged big businesses to donate £6.4bn ($8bn) to fund treatments, testing and vaccine development to fight coronavirus.
Coronavirus has now infected more than 1.3m people around the world and killed more than 74,000. The World Health Organization has urged countries to ramp up testing. Countries are scrambling to find a vaccine.
But the Wellcome Trust today said research has shown scientists are facing a large funding gap as they work on vital research that could contain the virus.
The Wellcome Trust today told big corporations that plugging that gap would be “the best investment your business can make”.
It cited Bloomberg research that said coronavirus could cost firms $2.7 trillion (£2.2 trillion) in lost output if it is allowed to run.
Economists have said containment measures will cause a deep global recession. For the US and Europe, the economic damage is likely to be the worst seen since World War II.
Wellcome said that extra funding for a scientific solution is “the world’s best exit strategy” for coronavirus.
It would save lives, protect jobs and get the global economy moving again faster than any other option, the Trust said.
Jeremy Farrar, director of Wellcome, said businesses should realise it is in their interest to fund scientific research and medical containment of the virus.
“Drugs, vaccines and rapid diagnostics are the only way we have of saving lives, bringing this pandemic to an end and preventing it reappearing,” he said.
“This is the only exit strategy – but we do not have the funding we need to execute it.”
“We want business leaders to give a small proportion of the money they are dedicating to coping with this crisis, to solving it,” Farrar said.