With the coronavirus pandemic running rampant across the globe, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has said he is willing to spend billions to help develop a coronavirus vaccine.
Stating that this is the only way to navigate the coronavirus crisis and get the world back to normal, he revealed he is already in talks with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institute of Health (NIH) about how to speed up the critical research.
The philanthropic billionaire said he has already put funding behind seven vaccine makers to allow them to build factories, but has called on countries to do more. He has also made $20million available to three initiatives in the US and UK aiming to study the effectiveness of known drugs in treating coronavirus infections.
Read More: White House, experts clash over use of drug for coronavirus
Speaking on a TV talk show, he said the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is ready to put billions behind finding a vaccine.
“Our foundation is trying to be as helpful in a very constructive way as possible,” he said.
“That’s why I’ve talked to the head of pharmaceutical companies.”
“We’ve also talked to a lot of behavioral agencies including CDC and NIH about how we work together on the vaccine and the drugs.”
“Our early money can accelerate things,” Gates said. “Even though we’ll end up picking at most two of them, we’re going to fund factories for all seven.”
“(It’s) so that we don’t waste time in serially saying which vaccine works and then building the factory.
“The only thing that really lets us go back completely to normal and feel good about sitting in stadiums with lots of other people is to create a vaccine and not just take care of our country but take that vaccine out to the global population.”
Separately, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation confirmed they were exploring using funding to “get the process (of building vaccines) moving”.
Read More: US company poised to start COVID-19 vaccine safety test
“Many of the current vaccine approaches are novel and have never been scaled for a commercialized product,” they said.
“Enhancements of global manufacturing capacity are clearly required given the population-level scale at which a Covid-19 vaccine will need to be given.”
The Foundation has already awarded $20million to three institutions in the US and UK to fund clinical trials aiming to study the effectiveness of repurposed drugs in combating coronavirus.
The recipients are the University of Washington, University of Oxford and La Jolla Institute for Immunology.
Read More: First volunteers receiving potential coronavirus vaccine in good health
“These grants to leading institutions in their fields will advance our understanding of how existing drugs and antibodies can contribute to addressing the pandemic we’re facing around the world,” said the Foundation’s chief executive, Mark Suzman.
