World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, said Aug. 10 there was a "vast global gap" in funding to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic, according to CNBC.
The WHO in April launched the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator, a global collaboration and fund that has a goal of advancing the development, production and equitable access to COVID-19 treatments and diagnostics.
However, Dr. Ghebreyesus said that billions more dollars are needed to realize the promise of it.
About $9.9 billion has been pledged to date, according to the report. Dr. Ghebreyesus said that the funding needed for vaccines alone was more than $100 billion.
"We have to fundamentally scale up the way we are financing the ACT-Accelerator and prioritize the use of new tools," Dr. Ghebreyesus said, according to CNBC.