Germany agreed Monday to spend €750 million ($812 million) on a program to develop and distribute vaccines, Research Minister Anja Karliczek announced.

Read more: Coronavirus latest — Hard-hit Europe eases restrictions

Around half a billion euros will go towards extending the trial capacities in Germany, and the rest of the money to developing production capacity. The announcement comes following a cabinet meeting led by Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"As soon as a vaccine is found and approved, production must be able to start quickly on a large scale both here in Germany and worldwide," Karliczek said. She called vaccine development the "key" to returning to normal life.

Large-scale trials

A primary goal of the new funding program is to allow clinical trials to work with a larger number of participants from the start. Medical personnel or other essential workers could be included in the tests on a voluntary basis, Karliczek said.

Normally trials are conducted on a step-by-step basis with a small amount of participants at the beginning and are slowly expanded.

Germany is one of a number of countries around the world funding trials into vaccine development. According to the German-based Association of Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies, 121 vaccine development programs are underway around the world.

ed/rc (dpa, Reuters)

Every evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here.