 Ever since the coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, saw its first case in Wuhan, China, it has spread worldwide, infecting over 15.4 million people as of July 23rd, 2020. Unfortunately, over 600,000 of those cases have resulted in the death of the patient. With the pandemic infecting more and more people every single day, scientists in several countries have been working to develop a vaccine to slow its spread. Since this vaccine is of a novel string, it soon became apparent that the vaccine was going to be very expensive. The governments of several nations, along with various philanthropic organizations, have given over $4.4 billion in funding to pharmaceutical corporations in order for them to research and develop a COVID-19 vaccine. However, these corporations were under no obligation to make this vaccine affordable or accessible for all people. Several world leaders have stated that as long as the vaccines research and development have been paid for with taxes, any future COVID-19 vaccine is for the global public good. Definite plans to purchase the vaccine and equitably distribute it, as well as the ensuring of unbiased prioritization have not been made yet. Doctors without borders urged world leaders to demand pharmaceutical companies to sell their developed coronavirus vaccines at cost price. In the past, corporations have made their vaccines nearly unaffordable as to pay for the research it took to develop the vaccines in the first place. Back in 2009, during the swine flu and pneumonia pandemic, pharmaceutical companies demanded higher prices for their vaccines. This left poorer nations unable to purchase vaccines for their citizens. Despite a fund created by Gavi, the Gates Foundation, the World Bank, and others to help those nations, as well as a $1.5 billion subsidy to Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline, supply shortages still occurred. One charitable organization, Oxfam, predicted that wealthier nations and pharmaceutical companies will attempt to profit from the pandemic, delaying or even preventing the vaccine from reaching developing countries and the poor regions of developed countries. The poorest half of the world consists of 3.7 billion people. Providing vaccines for all 3.7 billion of them would cost around $25 billion. In 2019, the top 10 pharmaceutical companies in the world made around $29.7 billion every four months. That's around $89 billion for the year, all made possible due to tax cuts, lobbying, and taxpayer-funded research. This means that for these top 10 pharmaceutical corporations, it would cost less than the equivalent of four months of profits to vaccinate the poorest half of the world. Conducting clinical trials for developed vaccines can cost millions of dollars. However, these trials do not always end up being successful. Failed vaccine trials can cost countries, taxpayers, and labs so much money. If an effective vaccine happens to be found, the facilities needed to manufacture the vaccines will cost millions or even billions to build and maintain. Even if the vaccine itself is cheap to manufacture, the amount of vaccine needed will add up to immense amounts. Furthermore, many people will need to be vaccinated yearly, as new strains of the virus may evolve from older strains. The International Finance Facility for Immunization, or IFIM, was created in 2006, where private investors and national governments can donate money into a fund that will be used to pay for vaccines and other health benefits to developing nations. The IFIM often sells bonds on the market. In 2019, the IFIM issued a bond to the Norwegian government in which it received money for the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovation, or CEPI, which provides funding for the creation of vaccines against infectious diseases, including COVID-19. Since its founding, the IFIM has raised over 5 billion dollars and has used that money to provide almost 2.6 billion dollars in aid, including to the Vaccine Alliance GAVI. While several vaccines are undergoing clinical trials as of July 2020, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has stated that a vaccine fit to be administered to people on a large scale probably won't be ready until December 2020 or much later. Oftentimes, the price charged for a vaccine by a pharmaceutical company depends on how much people or governments are willing to pay for it. Typically, wealthier countries are willing to pay much more for a vaccine. To ensure that a vaccine does not become too overpriced, 46 U.S. Congress members have signed a letter to President Donald Trump in February 2020 asking the Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, to prevent private companies from having exclusive licenses on the vaccine. If these companies gain a monopoly on the COVID-19 vaccine, it may become inaccessible to a large percent of the world's population. The HHS initially stated that they could not enforce price controls on any vaccines. However, they later backed out on that statement, claiming that any vaccine developed using government funding would be accessible to all people. Epivaxis CEO Andy Groot stated, it could cost at least $300 million to get EPV COVID-19 to the finish line. We are not looking to make a profit on this pandemic, but to simply cover costs. The company Moderna has expressed similar sentiments. It is important to note, however, that in 2010, Pfizer's pneumonia vaccine known as PrevNAR-13 cost almost $200 for its four-dose regimen. Whatever the case, it has been predicted that almost all major healthcare providers will cover for the COVID-19 vaccine. As of May 2020, around 250 drugs in 95 vaccines for treating the coronavirus are currently undergoing preclinical testing. Gilead Sciences' Remdesivir drug is the furthest developed of them all. As these drugs continue to be tested, policymakers emphasize how important it is to make these vaccines affordable and widely available if we want to end this awful pandemic. As always, stay tuned for more science videos.