DIVYA RAJAGOPAL : Gates Ventures, the private equity arm of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and a group of other philanthropic organizations are in talks to invest in Indian vaccine makers as they seek to increase global supply, have said three people aware of the development.
One of the companies Gates Ventures is in talks with is Pune-based Gennova, which is developing India’s first mRNA vaccine, the people said, requesting anonymity. Gennova is expected to seek emergency approval of its vaccine candidate from India’s drug regulator by the end of this year, they said.
The Gates Foundation and other such organizations are stepping up efforts to get covid vaccines to countries where access has been hampered by shortages as India, the world’s largest vaccine maker, halted exports after a devastating second wave. Only 6% of the African population is fully vaccinated, highlighting global disparities in access to covid vaccines.
An email sent to the Gates Foundation on Tuesday went unanswered. An external spokesperson for Gennova did not respond to an email.
Gates Ventures has invested in companies such as Aurobindo Pharma and Biological E in the past to support their manufacture of anti-HIV drugs and expand the manufacture of vaccines. Gates Ventures’ minimum investment size is $ 5 million, according to the organization’s website. The Gates Foundation has also indirectly provided grants to the Serum Institute of India (SII).
The Norwegian Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) is also in talks with Indian vaccine makers for a possible initial investment in candidate covid-19 vaccines, one of the three said. A spokesperson for CEPI did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
The government’s decision to open up covid vaccine exports earlier this month brought relief to vaccine companies in the final stages of clinical trials. Vaccine makers such as Biological E, Gennova and SII are considering exports and booster shots for Indians.
Biological E, which is developing a vaccine against covid, and Johnson and Johnson received $ 50 million from Development Finance Corp. (DFC) of the US government as part of a Quad initiative to expand the manufacture of covid-19 vaccines for low- and middle-income countries. As part of the deal, Biological E is expected to manufacture more than one billion doses of the vaccine by the end of 2022.
Earlier this year, several financial institutions, including the Exim Bank and the Japanese Bank of International Corp. (JBIC), met with vaccine manufacturers to explore funding strategies to help scale up their manufacturing. In July, Exim and JBIC offered to provide funding of up to $ 300 million to vaccine makers.
Despite the government’s decision to halt vaccine exports earlier this year to focus on its vaccination campaign, global organizations expect India to play an important role in supplying developing countries. Last month Soumya Swaminathan, scientific director of the World Health Organization, said in an interview that India should send 20 million doses of Covishield to the Covax facility. SII has pledged to deliver up to 1 billion doses of the AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine by the end of 2021. Swaminathan said that from January India’s exports could increase.
Cadila Healthcare, which developed India’s first DNA vaccine, said it would start exporting after obtaining WHO clearance or through separate country declarations once it fulfills its commitments to the government. Currently, Covishield and Covaxin are the only Indian vaccines approved by the WHO.
At the G20 meeting in Rome last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Indian companies would be ready to manufacture 5 billion doses by the end of 2022. However, India still lags behind. China, which supplied nearly 3 billion of its covid vaccines. in 50 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, according to data from health intelligence firm Airfinity.
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