Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she is taking to guarantee that a potential vaccine to tackle covid-19 is affordable and accessible to all countries.

The UK is at the forefront of efforts to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. Our goal is to end the pandemic, save lives and start global economic recovery. At the G20 last month, the Prime Minister called on all governments to work together to develop a vaccine as quickly as possible and make it globally available.

The UK has committed over £313 million into innovative research and development of vaccines, rapid diagnostics and promising therapeutics for COVID-19. We are funding key international organisations such as Gavi, the Vaccines Alliance, to ensure safe, effective and affordable COVID-19 vaccines can be rolled out at scale to ensure equitable access.

The UK welcomes the Action for COVID-19 Tools (ACT)-Accelerator launched at WHO last week, a global collaboration to accelerate global access to vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics. The First Secretary of State participated in this launch.