COVID-19: Our Global Support Program

Our Global Support Program aims to bring more financial relief, protective materials and medicine donations to healthcare institutions and communities in need around the world. The program focuses on four areas:

• Donations: We have made available EUR 7 million for financial and in-kind donations for local emergency aid across the globe. We are also working with local organizations that use financial and medicine donations to organize help for patients in their communities.

• Research for COVID-19 therapies​: Since January, we have freed up a growing team of currently more than 100 highly engaged scientists from all areas of research and development (R&D), to work on projects aimed at finding potential treatment solutions for COVID-19. We have furthermore announced our commitment alongside the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to ensure that our innovative therapies will be accessible to all affected countries regardless of their income level.

• Volunteering: In many communities, helping hands from volunteers, for example with a medical or nursing background, are urgently needed. We offer all of our 51,000 employees the opportunity to take up to 10 days of paid leave to join approved external organizations as a volunteer to bring COVID-19 relief. 

• Making More Health relief fund: A EUR 580,000 relief fund has been launched to support the global Making More Health (MMH) network of social entrepreneurs in Kenya and India, as well as the communities in which they live and work. 

Browse our different stories below to learn more about how we support across the globe.