Members of the PSD Delegation in the European Parliament questioned today European Commission about scarcity and delay in the funds allocated to vaccine and therapy research against COVID-19.
The priority question for written answer recalls that even though the European Union has the largest Science and Innovation program in the world, Horizon 2020, and has established an important partnership with the pharmaceutical sector (Innovative Medicines Initiative), it was only at this stage that it decided to announce the increasing of funds for research on this disease.
This comes when countries like China and the United States are already in an advanced stage of developing vaccines and therapies against the new strain of coronavirus.
As announced by the EC on Friday, the amount of funding is expected to reach 140 million euros, including 45 million euros for public-private collaboration projects run by the Innovative Medicines Initiatives (IMI).
For PSD MEPs, the funding remains insufficient. As a comparison, it is mentioned that the United States of America has already announced the investment of around 3000 million euros in the referred research activities.
“The European Union must be much more than an economic and political Union”, claimed Maria da Graça Carvalho, MEP following matters related to scientific research and Horizon 2020 framework programme. “It must be a Union that protects its citizens and their well-being. One has therefore to do a lot more to fight the coronavirus. More coordination in measures taken, further investment in scientific research and cooperation between centres of excellence in the field”.