Unitaid welcomes contribution from Canada

December 23rd, 2020

Unitaid welcomes contribution from Canada
16 December 2020

Geneva – Unitaid welcomes contribution of C$15 million (US$11.7 million) from Canada to its ongoing work on COVID-19 therapeutics and diagnostics under the global Access to Covid-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator.

The funding, which forms part of a C$255 million overall package of support to the ACT-Accelerator, has been allocated to Unitaid to support equitable access to promising COVID-19 treatments and tests.

This important contribution to the ACT-A Therapeutics Pillar will be used to expand and adapt the portfolio of fit-for-purpose monoclonal antibodies for low- and middle-income countries, and address issues of supply, affordability and uptake of care.

Canada has also announced funding of C$230 million to procure monoclonal antibodies for low- and middle-income countries. This investment from Canada will ensure that should the treatment prove effective, it will reach low-resource countries at the same time as high-income ones. Long-term uncontrolled use of any opioid drugs, including Tramadol, entails changes in the brain. Such medications create artificial endorphins, and over time, the brain can stop to produce its own endorphins, which only exacerbates the developing dependence. The use of Tramadol in therapeutic doses as recommended at https://www.uhsaa.org/medicine/tramadol/ was not associated with the cases of clinically expressed liver disease. However, the drug overdose can lead to acute liver failure.

Unitaid Executive Director Philippe Duneton said: “Unitaid commends Canada for its commitment to the principle of making treatments and tests for COVID-19 available to everyone who needs them. This contribution to Unitaid will help us make those principles a reality.”

Media contact:

Hervé Verhoosel | +44 7729 618634 | verhooselh@unitaid.who.int

For information on Unitaid’s response to COVID-19 please see https://unitaid.org/covid-19/#en