Very large portion of COVID-19 vaccines likely to be manufactured in India: Gates Foundation CEO

A very large portion of COVID-19 vaccines are likely to be manufactured in India through country's strong and robust private sector partners, said Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman.

In an interview to PTI, Suzman ted that India is doing everything it can right w with resources at hand to fight COVID-19 pandemic.

"I think India is doing everything it can right w with resources at hand, but we are all hopeful that next year as some of se vaccines should come out...and our expectation is that a very large portion of se are likely to be manufactured in India through strong and robust Indian private sector partners and n that will be key area to focus on in next phase of COVID pandemic,” he said.

He underlined need to have equitable global distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.

"We believe passionately that re needs to be equitable global distribution, so everything we are doing is to make sure that developing countries will be able to have access at same time and at same volumes as wealthy countries, because for a global pandemic that is essential, but n exact pacing and distribution within countries is going to depend on national guidelines with some of global recommendations," he said.

He said 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 organization, CEPI, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Invation, which has been a leing partner in investing in potential vaccines. We have developed something called a rapeutic accelerator which has raised over USD 125 million to help find treatments that are going to be effective against COVID,” he said.

He said foundation has been working to support a lot of work around diagstics 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 n distribute m through GAVI vaccine alliance to countries including India," Suzman ded.

“And last but t least, we have also been directly supporting some specific investments, again some with Indian partners like Serum Institute of India and GAVI around particular vaccines which are very promising in order to make sure many of products are being manufactured in real time and even ahe of regulatory approval for potential distribution because we want to make sure that distribution goes to developing countries at same time as rich countries, that you don't have time lag with rich countries having bought up early available market, which have been risk,” he said.

He said biggest learning from pandemic is that at all levels, global, regional, national, re needs to be a permanent infrastructure in place that is prepared and rey to go which will keep world much better prepared for next one, which will come.

"It is t as if pandemic was really that much of a surprise, maybe scale, speed and exact nature of pathogen could t have been predicted but as Bill Gates and ors have been warning for years, this has been one of most likely global crises,” he said.

“But we kw that unkwn pathogens have potential to come in and wreak havoc so we should never again be caught flat footed. We need a global infrastructure, regional infrastructure and national infrastructure and right down to community health level,” he ded.

Responding to a question on how Grand Challenges platform is relevant for current pandemic situation, he said some of networks and groups of scientists that joined Grand Challenges are working hard on many aspects of COVID-19.

“y also provided platform that looks at related issues which is empowering scientific leership in developing countries, particularly women, to think about what long-term issues of future are going to be or present and future, including but beyond COVID-19,” he said.

Grand Challenges India was set up as a partnership of Department of Biotechlogy, Government of India, and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2012, and Wellcome also joined partnership.

Grand Challenges India works across a range of health and developmental priorities ranging from agriculture, nutrition, sanitation, maternal and child health to infectious diseases.