NEW YORK ─ The Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) on Monday announced it has been awarded almost $60 million in new funding to accelerate progress in tests and testing capacity for COVID-19.
FIND said that the support has been confirmed by New York-based Rockefeller Foundation ($10 million) and the governments of Australia through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade ($5.4 million); Germany through the Federal Ministry of Education and Research ($11.3 million); Switzerland through the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation ($11.7 million); Kuwait ($5 million); Netherlands ($5.7 million); and Saudi Arabia ($10 million).
The funds are being awarded to accelerate efforts in research and development, market readiness, and country preparedness to fight COVID-19, FIND said.
Geneva-based FIND was awarded the funds in the context of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator Diagnostics Pillar, a program it oversees with The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.
Through the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator program, FIND recently announced agreements involving multiple global health organizations to make 120 million affordable, quality COVID-19 antigen rapid tests available to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).