HOW CLOSE ARE WE TO MANUFACTURING THE VACCINE?

Quite like the opinions by experts all around the world, Varaprasad Reddy shares that we will not come out with a vaccine at least until next year May or June. “To escalate the production itself takes three to four months. Some companies in India have already started boasting that they have come up with a vaccine. We do not have the money to develop anything here. Recently, there was news that a vaccine is out and that it is in Phase-One trial, and that it will then have Phases Two and Three after which the company hopes to get a license and start production. Then, they would need to escalate the production of the vaccine. And when a few millions samples of the vaccine are available, only then can people start getting it,” he explains.

To illustrate the logistics and money involved in the production and testing of vaccines, Varaprasad shares the example of the Gates Foundation. “Gavi and Gates Foundation realised that they require at least 1. 5 billion doses of vaccine a day at six centres across the globe, which would entail untold logistics to be able to manufacture and supply it to all these six centres throughout the globe. It would take billions in,” states Varaprasad. “No one has developed any vaccine here. People are only doing clinical trials yet. This is what was done for Remdesivir, too — in small trials for 100 or 200 people. When everything seemed okay, these companies were given license to sell Remdesivir for COVID-19,” elaborates Varaprasad Reddy.