New Delhi: A very large amount of COVID-19 vaccines are likely to be manufactured in India. This is because India has strong and robust private sector partners, said Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman. In an interview, Mark Suzman noted that India is doing everything it can right now with the resources at hand to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think India is doing everything it can right now with the resources at hand to fight against COVID-19. We are all hopeful that next year some of these vaccines should come out. Our expectation is that a very large portion of these are likely to be manufactured in India. Then that will be the key area to focus on in the next phase of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Suzman said.
The top official also underlined the need to have equitable global distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. “We believe passionately that there needs to be equitable global distribution. So everything we are doing is to make sure that the developing countries will be able to have access to the vaccine like the wealthy ones. Equitable distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine is essential to fight against the global pandemic, Suzman added.
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Suzman also said the ‘Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’ has been working at multiple levels to combat COVID-19.
“We have been providing support, so called upstream, or research and development. We work with this organisation, CEPI, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation. It has been a leading partner in investing in the potential vaccines. We have developed something called a therapeutic accelerator. It has raised over USD 125 million to help find treatments that are going to be effective against COVID,” informed Suzman.
He also said the foundation has been working to support a lot of work around diagnostics as well. “And in that context, we are strong supporters of this global effort, which India is part of, called COVAX, which is a multilateral initiative to procure vaccines at scale and then distribute them through the GAVI vaccine alliance to countries including India,” Suzman informed.
“And last but not least, we have also been directly supporting some specific investments. Some are with Indian partners like Serum Institute of India and GAVI around particular vaccines. We want to make sure many of the products are being manufactured in real time and even ahead of regulatory approval for potential distribution,” the official stated.