Bill Gates, Co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Monday, October 9 announced new investments to advance access to mRNA research and vaccine manufacturing technology.
The billionaire noted that aid was essential in supporting low- and middle-income countries’ (LMICs) capacity to develop large-scale high-quality, lifesaving vaccines.
According to the philanthropist, the move builds on lessons the foundation has learned from more than 20 years of working with vaccine manufacturers in LMICs and the opportunity to leverage recent scientific advances to develop low-cost, high-quality health tools that reach more people worldwide.
mRNA technology is considered a potential game-changer for various infectious diseases, including tuberculosis, malaria, and Lassa fever, which disproportionately affect people in LMICs. This new technology can significantly lower the costs of mRNA research and manufacturing and enable expanded access—helping to close critical gaps.
“Global health research & development (R&D) deserves more funding. Less than five per cent of all R&D goes to the diseases that kill children the most by far and the best way we can celebrate 20 years of Grand Challenges Annual Meeting is to continue to focus on the world’s hardest problems with the most innovative solutions,” Bill Gates stated.
“mRNA vaccines have simpler research and manufacturing processes than traditional vaccines and so expanding access to this next-generation technology can help African countries like Senegal and South Africa gain autonomy to discover and develop low-cost, high-quality vaccines for diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis that are consistent with their health priorities,” he added.
Explaining the need to equip especially African nations, Bill Gates insisted that it was key to averting future medical disasters. The capitalist noted that he was devasted by the ravaging effects of Covid-19.
Most countries struggled to find vaccines while European nations and the US with advanced research prioritized their citizens before rolling out donations to the rest of the world especially Africa.
To help close the gap, Bill Gates rooted for homegrown solutions through the training of researchers and other experts in the field.
