Covid-19 roundup: Gates Foun­da­tion pours $150M in­to In­dia’s Serum In­sti­tute; Pfiz­er teams with Gilead on remde­sivir

By CEO and scion Adar Poon­awal­la’s es­ti­ma­tion, the Serum In­sti­tute in In­dia has al­ready poured hun­dreds of mil­lions of dol­lars in­to scal­ing up the un­proven Covid-19 vac­cine be­ing de­vel­oped by As­traZeneca and Ox­ford for use in low and mid­dle in­come coun­tries. It’s meant tak­ing on a risk that oth­er com­pa­nies, in­clud­ing As­traZeneca, have mit­i­gat­ed with huge amounts of gov­ern­ment fund­ing.

Now, for the first time, Poon­awal­la is get­ting some out­side help. The Gates Foun­da­tion has agreed to pay the in­sti­tute $150 mil­lion to sup­ply 100 mil­lion vac­cines to In­dia and oth­er emerg­ing economies next year, Reuters re­port­ed. That in­cludes both the vac­cine be­ing de­vel­oped by As­traZeneca and the one be­ing de­vel­oped by No­vavax. Those vac­cines will be avail­able in 92 coun­tries and be priced at $3 per dose.

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