Answer given by Ms Gabriel on behalf of the European Commission
(13 July 2021)
The Commission has been at the forefront of funding research and innovation and coordinating European and global research efforts in the fight against COVID-19 (2).
Since January 2020, the Commission has mobilised over EUR 800 million through several special actions addressing, among others, the development of vaccines (3) and new treatments for COVID-19 (4). An EU strategy on COVID-19 therapeutics including future actions has recently been published (5).
This strategy mentions that some of these projects are already delivering results including the identification of existing medicines (6) to be used as therapeutics and novel antigen-based therapies (7), and it announced its first emergency funding under Horizon Europe for urgent research into coronavirus variants (8).
In addition, the Commission is currently funding two projects, RECOVER (9) and EU-RESPONSE (10) that include large-scale, EU-wide clinical trials on therapeutics for COVID-19. These are REMAP-CAP for COVID-19 (11), DisCoVeRy and EU-SOLIDACT.
A trial coordination board with a joint access advisory mechanism, a single entry point for developers with new, to be tested compounds has been established (12).
These trials have already delivered important knowledge improving the outcome of COVID-19 patients. For example, the REMAP- CAP trial found that Tocilizumab and Sarilumab could cut the relative risk of death of severely-ill COVID-19 patients by 24% (13).
Support for small and medium-sized enteprises is also provided via the European Innovation Council Accelerator, which already provides support to 36 projects aimed at tackling COVID-19 of which 22 concern development of treatments for COVID-19. For example, the BRIGHT project has developed an antibody-based treatment that is now in clinical development (14).
⋅1∙ https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/video/corona-medikament-ohne-finanzierung-100.html — https://www.ndr.de/ratgeber/gesundheit/Antikoerper-Therapie-gegen-
Corona-Welche-Medikamente-gibt-es,coronavirus4280.html
⋅2∙ https://ec.europa.eu/info/research-and-innovation/research-area/health-research-and-innovation/coronavirus-research-and-innovation_en
⋅3∙ https://ec.europa.eu/info/research-and-innovation/research-area/health-research-and-innovation/coronavirus-research-and-innovation/vaccines_en
⋅4∙ https://ec.europa.eu/info/research-and-innovation/research-area/health-research-and-innovation/coronavirus-research-and-innovation/treatments_en ;
https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-law-and-publications/publication-detail/-/publication/e6a26152-c4dd-11eb-a925-01aa75ed71a1 ⋅5∙ https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/default/files/communication-eu-strategy-covid-19-therapeutics_en.pdf ;
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2201
⋅6∙ https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/coronavirus-eu-funded-project-launches-clinical-trial-coronavirus-treatment-italy
⋅7∙ https://ec.europa.eu/info/news/eu-funded-researchers-develop-potential-new-treatment-against-sars-cov-2-2021-mar-25_en
⋅8∙ https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_21_1548 ; https://ec.europa.eu/info/news/eu-invest-eu150-million-research-counter-coronavirus-
variants-2021-feb-17_en
⋅9∙ https://www.recover-europe.eu/
⋅10∙ https://eu-response.eu/
⋅11∙ https://www.remapcap.eu/ ; https://www.remapcap.org/coronavirus
⋅12∙
[email protected]⋅13∙ https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/211514/arthritis-drugs-reduce-mortality-time-icu/ ; https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2100433
⋅14∙ https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210503005365/en/XENOTHERA-And-Its-Partner-Excelya-Announce-the-Recruitment-of-the-First-Patient-in-The-
EUROXAV-Clinical-Trial-of-its-COVID-Treatment-XAV-19