Secretary Azar Statement on New Partnership to Develop National Strategy for COVID-19 Therapies and Vaccines

On Friday, the National Institutes of Health and the Foundation for NIH announced plans underway to launch a public-private partnership, known as the Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV) partnership, with more than a dozen biopharmaceutical companies, HHS’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and the European Medicines Agency, to develop a national strategy for a coordinated research response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

HHS Secretary Alex Azar issued the following statement:

“The ACTIV partnership will bring new levels of coordination and speed to public and private work on therapies and vaccines for COVID-19—work that NIH, HHS, and the Trump Administration began literally days after the coronavirus threat was identified in China in January. To save lives and bring life back to normal in the United States and around the world, we need COVID-19 vaccines and therapies on the market as soon as possible. By bringing together 16 pharmaceutical companies and five government agencies here and abroad, the ACTIV partnership will accelerate the amazing work being done every day by scientists and innovators inside and outside of government. NIH has an extensive track record of coordinating these development efforts for new biological threats, and they are well-suited to lead this part of the whole-of-government, whole-of-America response President Trump has marshaled to defeat COVID-19.”