Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what plans the Government has to use its position as co-host of the Coronavirus Global Response Summit to support legally binding arrangements with private and public partners to ensure that health technologies resulting from public investment are (a) priced fairly and affordably to healthcare payers and (b) free to the public at the point of care in all countries.

The UK is at the forefront of global efforts to ensure equitable access to potential COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and tests, and is funding key organisations central to the global response. We have committed over £313 million of UK aid to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), the Wellcome Therapeutics Accelerator and the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics. This, alongside our £1.65 billion pledge to GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, will support the development, manufacture and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and tests for people in the Global South.

We are proud to have co-led the successful Coronavirus Global Response Initiative pledging event on 4 May, which raised 7.4 billion Euros. The Prime Minister took part by video message, reiterating his call at the G20 in March for leaders to collaborate to rapidly develop a vaccine, making it available to everyone who needs it. We are committed to continued collaboration with public and private partners in the UK and internationally to this end. The Foreign Secretary welcomed the Action for COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator initiative to support international collaboration on development and global access to COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics at its launch on 24 April.