Bill Gates file photo. (Image: Jeff Pachoud / Getty Images)
Bill Gates India will play a big role in the development of the coronavirus vaccine because the largest volume vaccine manufacturers in the world who have done a fantastic job are in the country.
- News18.com
- Last update: September 15, 2020 2:34 PM IST
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Three of the top six coronavirus vaccines will likely work early next year, Bill Gates said Tuesday, setting an optimistic schedule for vaccine development and dose distribution.
In making this assessment, the Microsoft co-founder told the Times of India that he expects some of the vaccines to work very well by next year, although how they work in terms of blocking transmission or preventing disease remains to be studied.
Stating that most of the world will prefer a vaccine developed in the West, Gates said the partnership with India would be crucial to increasing manufacturing capacity.
“Due to the need to get them (vaccines) out, we want to move to full-volume manufacturing on many of these builds. I think most of the world will want to see a vaccine that has been reviewed by a first-tier regulator, which is usually the USFDA or Europe or the UK, “he said.
Researchers are currently testing 38 vaccines in human clinical trials, and at least 93 preclinical vaccines are under active investigation in animals around the world.
Highlighting the vaccines being developed in China and Russia, he said that while those may also work, the regulatory mechanism there is still not up to par with the West.
Gates, who is a leading philanthropic funder of global health and development, said that the development of the vaccine will have to be a global effort. He said that India will play a very important role because here are the largest volume vaccine manufacturers in the world who have done a fantastic job.
“We have been in many discussions with Indian companies about vaccines that appear to be inexpensive and highly scalable, including AstraZeneca, Novavax, Sanofi, and Johnson & Johnson,” he said.
Several of these pharmaceutical companies have already partnered with vaccine manufacturers in India, including the Serum Institute of India, which is the world’s largest producer. However, the company’s CEO had dashed hopes that a vaccine would be available quickly and said he hopes it won’t be available to everyone before the end of 2024.
Gates also spoke about the spread of the coronavirus in India, saying that it was a more difficult challenge to control the pandemic here because of the high-density cities and given that much of the work is not the kind of office work that is easily done through from Internet. Connection.
“Therefore, there are very difficult trade-offs for what is done in terms of economic activity versus trying to stop the spread of the disease. I do not envy the Indian leaders for those difficult decisions, ”he said. He predicted difficult days for the country if the models are correct on the number of cases in the coming months.
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