$99M EU grant for public-private efforts against virus

The EU is set to allocate a total €90 million (nearly $99 million) investment in a public-private partnership between the EU and the pharmaceutical industry to help tackle coronavirus, it said on Tuesday.

Calling for research proposals under the Innovative Medicines Initiative by the end of March focusing on developing treatments and diagnostics to tackle the coronavirus outbreak, the EU aims to increase preparedness for the future, according to a statement on the European Parliament website.

Half of the expected investment will come from the EU budget and the rest from industry, it said.

The EU has allocated €47.5 million for 17 research projects within 2020 in funding research to find a cure for COVID-19.

In order to tackle the current outbreak, 136 research teams from across the EU and beyond are participating in these projects.

It also supported to the tune of €80 million CureVac, an innovative vaccine developer in Germany, to work on a coronavirus vaccine.

This fund will also come in the form of an EU guarantee of a currently assessed European Investment Bank loan of an identical amount.

The EU has several research and emergency funding mechanisms in place such as Prepare, a project supporting the readiness of hospitals in Europe and enhancing their understanding of the dynamics of the outbreak.

It also has been backing startups in developing technology that could help tackle the outbreak, including EpiShuttle, a project for specialized isolation units, and m-Tap, an air filtration technology to remove viral particles.