Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will take further steps to allocate Official Development Assistance funding to support research and development of covid-19 (a) diagnostics, (b) treatments, and (c) vaccines.

The UK is at the forefront of global research focussed on the development of potential COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and diagnostics, and is already providing Official Development Assistance to key organisations central to the global response. The UK co-led a successful pledging event on 4 May that raised 7.4 billion Euros for COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and testing, and we are hosting the Global Vaccines Summit on 4 June.

We have committed over £313 million of UK aid towards research to develop potential vaccines through the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, for treatments through the Wellcome Therapeutics Accelerator, and for diagnostic tests through the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics. In addition, on 29 April, we pledged a total of £1.65 billion over 5 years to GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, to support the development, manufacture and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines. We will continue to review the need for further development assistance as the pandemic progresses.