Business Wire

KENUP-FOUNDATION

Share
Governments Spent at Least €93bn on COVID-19 Vaccines and Therapeutics During the Last 11 Months

According to analysis conducted by kENUP Foundation, the public sector has dedicated at least €93bn to COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics in 2020. More than 95%, about €88.3bn, was spent on vaccine companies. Only 5% of public COVID-19 funds were spent on therapeutics.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210110005098/en/

Most of the funds, around €86.5bn, were used to conclude advance market commitments (AMCs). In return for the right to buy a specified number of vaccine doses in a given timeframe, governments finance part of the upfront costs faced by vaccines producers in the form of AMCs. Just 7% of funds were spent through preferred loans or conventional grants.

The data also shows the origin of the funding: 32% of funds directed towards vaccine producers come from the US, 24% from the EU, and a total of 13% from the governments of Japan and South Korea.

For vaccines, exceptionally, governments invested 71% or at least €63.1bn into Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and MidCaps. Only 18% of funds went to big pharma, underlining the importance of SMEs in driving innovation.

Holm Keller, Chairman of kENUP Foundation said: “Public investments have been instrumental in supporting innovation in the fight against the coronavirus. To bridge the time until broad rollout of vaccines, further investment in therapeutics is especially important. In parallel, a dedicated public pandemic preparedness scheme that would make vaccines and therapeutics readily available at lower development costs for any kind of pandemic pathogen is needed”.

The figures are kENUP’s analysis of publicly available information. They do not include private sector investments. The data was correct as at January 10, 2021.

About kENUP Foundation:

kENUP Foundation is a non-profit public benefit foundation supporting research-based innovation in health industries for societal benefit. kENUP initiates public and private investment into innovations with the potential to improve the livelihood of every citizen. The development of such innovations is often hampered by failing markets. Through its work, kENUP aims to change that.

About Business Wire

Business Wire
Business Wire
101 California Street, 20th Floor
CA 94111 San Francisco

http://businesswire.com

Subscribe to releases from Business Wire

Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Latest releases from Business Wire

Suzano Forms Partnership with Tencent and Ecofuturo Institute at COP30 for AI-Powered Conservation and Nature Education20.11.2025 18:25:00 CET | Press release

New agreement signed at COP30 will see organisations collaborating to use artificial intelligence tools for biodiversity monitoring and digital platforms to boost public engagement in conservation efforts. The world’s largest pulp supplier, Suzano, today announces the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the multinational technology business Tencent and the Brazilian non-profit Ecofuturo Institute, to pioneer new digital approaches to drive public engagement in conservation. The collaboration will leverage Suzano’s expertise in sustainable forestry, Tencent’s cutting-edge digital technology, and Ecofuturo’s expertise in environmental education, to pilot joint initiatives in both Brazil and China. These include enhancing ecological awareness, accelerating biodiversity solutions, and leveraging digital platforms to foster public engagement in conservation. The partnership will result in a pilot project where advanced AI tools for species recognition developed by Tencent’s

EMVCo Working on How Global Specifications Can Support Agentic Payments20.11.2025 17:38:00 CET | Press release

EMVCo – the technical body that creates and manages EMV® Specifications and programmes that enable seamless and secure card-based payments worldwide – has announced that it is working on how global specifications can support innovation in agentic payment solutions by increasing trust and interoperability across the ecosystem. Agentic commerce is rapidly reshaping the shopping experience by enabling AI agents to act on the consumer’s behalf. This is driving significant momentum for agentic payments, which introduce AI agents as new actors that can initiate transactions with merchants – without requiring direct involvement from the consumer. While agentic payments have the potential to increase convenience and personalisation, they present unique considerations for how transactions are initiated, authenticated and secured. As industry adoption and innovation accelerate, a globally interoperable and scalable approach may be beneficial in realising trusted agentic payments for consumers, m

Université Paris-Saclay and Owkin: A Unique Alliance to Propel University Medical Research to the Top of the European Rankings Through AI20.11.2025 15:17:00 CET | Press release

Université Paris-Saclay and Owkin announce the signing of a memorandum of understanding to explore the potential of K Pro Free - Owkin’s AI co-pilot for biology - for use by Paris-Saclay. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251120130113/en/ K Pro Free will now be available to the entire Université Paris-Saclay community, and in particular teachers, researchers and doctoral students working in the biomedical sciences. The partnership includes workshops, training sessions and events designed to promote the discovery and adoption of K Pro Free, as well as the co-organization of communication and dissemination initiatives around the use of AI in health. In this way, the partnership will promote user training, but also enrich and continuously improve the co-pilot's models through feedback and use cases from the l’Université Paris-Saclay community. This partnership is part of Université Paris-Saclay’s strategy to integr

Frasca Advances Flight Training Technology with New Visual System Powered by Unreal Engine20.11.2025 15:05:00 CET | Press release

Frasca International, Inc., a FlightSafety International company and leader in flight simulation, today announced the launch of VITAL FVS 100, the next evolution of its visual system technology. Building on the proven TruVision Global platform, VITAL FVS 100 was developed using Epic Games’ Unreal Engine and delivers unprecedented realism, scalability, and innovation in pilot training. The Unreal-powered VITAL FVS 100 system introduces major advancements in visual fidelity and training realism, further enhancing the capabilities of Frasca, a leading developer of flight simulators and training devices. The new system includes physically based renderings, advanced lighting effects, and a new volumetric cloud model that creates dynamic, weather-rich environments. Terrain imagery now includes one-meter resolution coverage for the contiguous United States and Hawaii, with expanded global datasets covering European buildings and tree covered regions. Additionally, enhanced particle effects re

GigaOm Radar for Vector Databases v3 Positions Vespa.ai as a Leader and Outperformer20.11.2025 15:00:00 CET | Press release

Vespa Recognized for Integrated Ranking, Multimodal Search, and Production-Scale AI Performance Vespa.ai, the creator of the AI Search Platform for building and deploying large-scale, real-time AI applications powered by big data, today announced its recognition as a Leader and Outperformer in the GigaOm Radar for Vector Databases v3, marking the company’s third consecutive year being evaluated in GigaOm’s vector database research. Now in its third edition, the report compares 17 leading open source and commercial solutions using GigaOm’s structured evaluation framework. In addition to core table-stakes capabilities, the Radar reviews each vendor’s key features, emerging strengths, and broader business criteria. The shift from Sonar to Radar reflects the technology’s transition into mainstream adoption. GigaOm names Vespa.ai a leader for its ability to manage complex data, optimize results at scale, and support multimodal AI workloads. The report highlights Vespa’s native tensor suppor

In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.

Visit our pressroom
World GlobeA line styled icon from Orion Icon Library.HiddenA line styled icon from Orion Icon Library.Eye