[ad_1]
- Billionaire and Microsoft philanthropist Bill Gates wrote in a blog post that he believes there are currently between eight and ten promising candidates for a coronavirus vaccine.
- Gates believes it will take 18 months to develop a vaccine, although he says it could come as early as nine months or take up to two years.
- Along with candidates using traditional methods, Gates is particularly excited about two new types of vaccines: the RNA and DNA vaccine.
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
There are more than a hundred coronavirus vaccines in the pipeline, and those eight to ten have caught the attention of Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
Gates is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in developing a vaccine through his philanthropic organization, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The foundation has so far pledged a total of $ 250 million to fight the coronavirus, and Gates recently announced that the organization will dedicate all of its resources to the pandemic.
Gates published a blog post Thursday that describes the process for developing and distributing a vaccine. He wrote that a vaccine is likely to take around 18 months to develop, although he writes on his blog that “it could be as little as 9 months or two years.”
“As of April 9, there are 115 different candidates for the COVID-19 vaccine in development,” writes Gates. “I think eight to ten of them look particularly promising. (However, our foundation will keep an eye on all the others to see if we have missed any that have some positive traits.)”
Gates says these promising candidates “take a variety of approaches to protect the body against COVID-19,” and then explain that there are two main types of vaccine: inactivated and live.
Inactivated vaccines contain a dead version of the desired pathogen, while live vaccines contain a smaller but live dose. Gates describes these methods as traditional and reliable, but adds that they are resource intensive and slow to develop.
“I am particularly excited about two new approaches some of the candidates are taking: RNA and DNA vaccines,” writes Gates.
“Instead of injecting a pathogen’s antigen into your body, it gives the body the genetic code necessary to produce that antigen itself. When antigens appear on the outside of your cells, your immune system attacks them and learns how to defeat to future intruders in the process. Basically you turn your body into its own vaccine manufacturing unit. “
Although the Gates Foundation has been researching RNA vaccines for almost a decade, they have not yet come to nature. “Since COVID would be the first RNA vaccine out the door, we have to demonstrate that the platform itself works and that it creates immunity. It’s a bit like building your first computer system and software at the same time.” Gates says.
A key challenge surrounding the production of a vaccine for COVID-19 is that a coronavirus vaccine has never been developed to date.
But the Microsoft billionaire has said on numerous occasions that a return to full normality is impossible without a vaccine.
“Humanity has never had a more urgent task than creating broad immunity to the coronavirus. Realistically, if we are to return to normal, we need to develop a safe and effective vaccine,” he writes.
