Israeli Gov’t to Give $60 Million to COVID-19 Vaccine Research

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on May 4 that the Israeli government will provide $60 million toward efforts to develop a COVID-19 vaccine.

Netanyahu announced the pledge in a pre-recorded video in a European Commission-hosted virtual marathon to raise money for the World Health Organization, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other organizations worldwide working on the vaccine.

“Global plague eradication requires global partnership,” Netanyahu said. “Israel, like all countries, was significantly affected by the plague. Fortunately, the number of victims we have so far is relatively low. This is the result of early action to stop the virus, advanced technology used to track those infected, first-rate medical experts and a disciplined population that largely obeyed the government’s containment policy.”

He acknowledged that while Israel and other countries are starting to reopen their economies, the COVID-19 pandemic is not close to ending and the pandemic can only end when a vaccine is developed.

“We must all work together on improving diagnostics, accelerating therapies and ultimately developing a vaccine,” the Israeli prime minister said. “I am confident that Israel’s leading research institutions, its world-renowned scientists and our unique culture of innovation can enable us to play an important role in advancing solutions on all three fronts.”

Other participants in the event included British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron, Jordan King Abdullah II and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The United States did not participate in the event.

Various Israeli institutions have been making progress on developing a vaccine. The Galilee Research Institute (MIGAL) is reportedly in the final stages of developing its vaccine and the Israeli Institute for Biological Research has been testing its on rodents. On April 19, Tel Aviv University professor Jonathan Gershoni obtained a patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a COVID-19 vaccine; he estimated at the time that he was two-thirds of the way toward completing his vaccine.

There are dozens of companies around the world working toward developing a vaccine and reportedly at least 100 vaccines in the pipeline. Eight reportedly are in human trials, including two in the United States.

As of this writing, there are 16,237 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 235 deaths from the virus in Israel.