Developing diagnostic and serological tests as well as vaccine strategies for preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection have been the areas that have benefited from an EIB Group donation to Institut Pasteur, in France.

Since the beginning of 2020, Institut Pasteur has been working on several vaccines for SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. Three of the vaccines are already well advanced. Two use viral vectors and the third one is a DNA vaccine.

Institut Pasteur has also used the funding for modelling, epidemiology and dynamics of immune responses, the biology of SARS-CoV-2, virus-host interactions and therapeutic strategies for treating or preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection. Click here for more information.

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck Europe in early 2020, the Institute, as part of the EIB Group’s response to the crisis, coordinated a donation of € 1 million, the largest ever made by the EIB Group.

Half of this donation went to well-known, not-for-profit EU research institutes in their research and development for a vaccine/treatment for COVID-19: Institut Pasteur, National Institute for Infectious Diseases, Lazzaro Spallanzani, Foundation for Polish Science and the Karolinska Institute. The other half was allocated to NGOs fighting the effects of the pandemic. Click here for more information.

So far, COVID-19 has struck more than 80 million people worldwide causing close to 1,8 million deaths.

Within the EIB Group the Institute is responsible for grants following humanitarian catastrophes.