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Prime ministers, a king, a prince and Madonna all chipped in to an $8 billion pot to fund a coronavirus vaccine. President Trump skipped the chance to contribute, with officials in his administration noting that the United States is pouring billions of dollars into its own research efforts. A fund-raising conference on Monday organized by the European Union brought pledges from countries around the world — from Japan to Canada, Australia to Norway — to fund laboratories that have promising leads in developing and producing a vaccine. (Stevis-Gridneff and Jakes, 5/4)

“In the space of just few hours we have collectively pledged 7.4 billion euros ($8.1 billion) for vaccine, diagnostics and treatment” against COVID-19, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said after chairing the online event. “This will help kick-start unprecedented global cooperation,” she added. It was however unclear what was new funding, as commitments made earlier this year may also be included, EU officials said. (Emmott and Guarascio, 5/4)

World leaders came together in a virtual summit Monday to pledge billions of dollars to quickly develop vaccines and drugs to fight the coronavirus. Missing from the roster was the Trump administration, which declined to participate but highlighted from Washington what one official called its “whole-of-America” efforts in the United States and its generosity to global health efforts. (Booth, Johnson and Morello, 5/4)

The U.S. State Department said in a statement that the country “welcomes efforts by other countries to mobilize resources” against the coronavirus and commended the pledging conference. A senior State Department official at a briefing Monday declined to explain the U.S. decision to stay out of the conference. Organizers want to ensure that scientific breakthroughs on tests, treatments and vaccines are shared and deployed everywhere across developed and developing countries. (Norman, 5/4)

In any event, nearly all of the leaders acknowledged that far more money would be needed down the line, especially when the time comes to manufacture and distribute a vaccine. And the precise location of the event's metaphorical finish-line was less of a question than the overall approach to counting the biggest pledges. At a briefing last week, senior Commission officials announced that they had decided that national government expenditures going back to January would qualify toward the overall goal. (Herszenhorn and Paun, 5/4)

At a WHO telebriefing today, the group's director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, called the pledging commitments a powerful and inspiring demonstration of global solidarity. He said scientists are working at incredible speed to develop tools to battle COVID-19, but the measure of success isn't just how fast, safe, and effective they are, it's also how equally they can be distributed. "None of us can accept a world in which some people are protected while others are not. Everybody should be protected," he said. "None of us are safe until all of us are safe."(Schnirring, 5/4)

While the U.S. did not participate, leaders of other countries addressed the summit directly, including French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. (Finnegan, 5/4)

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres lauded the fundraising effort as a good "down-payment" on the sum he expects will be required to immunize the world's population, but he noted that, "to reach everyone, everywhere, we likely need five times that amount." The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation alone committed $100 million to the pursuit. "COVID-19 has reminded us that viruses don't obey borders or customs laws. They don't care about what nationality you are," Melinda Gates told the other summit participants. (5/5)

The global race to create the first approved vaccine for COVID-19 has a new entry, a collaboration by two Harvard-affiliated teaching hospitals that has received a $1 million donation from Boston Celtics co-owner Wyc Grousbeck. Researchers at Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Massachusetts General Hospital are working on a vaccine that uses a harmless virus as a Trojan horse to deliver the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus into human cells to produce an immune response that would protect people from the disease. (Saltzman, 5/4)

Their work employs a method already used in gene therapy for two inherited diseases, including a form of blindness: It uses a harmless virus as a vector, or carrier, to bring DNA into the patient’s cells. In this case, the DNA should instruct the cells to make a coronavirus protein that would stimulate the immune system to fight off future infections. So far, the team has studied its vaccine candidates only in mice. Tests for safety and potency in monkeys should begin within a month or so at another academic center, the researchers said. But two of seven promising versions are already being manufactured for studies in humans. (Grady, 5/4)