On Tuesday, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates issued a warning of potential pandemics far worse than the COVID-19 and called on “governments to contribute billions to tackle future pathogens and increase vaccine supplies,” according to a report from Financial Times.
Gates warned in 2015 that the biggest potential killer the world could ever face was not war but a pandemic. Gates claimed he felt terrible when only a few listened to him when he warned the world leaders about infectious diseases.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK’s Wellcome Trust are giving $300m to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).
CEPI announced that this new funding commitments will support CEPI’s goal to condense new vaccine development timelines to 100 days, a third of the time it took to develop a COVID-19 vaccine.
“The financial pledges—which together contribute towards the coalition’s $3.5 billion fundraising target—will help advance CEPI’s efforts to further COVID-19 vaccine R&D through investments in the development of the ‘next generation’ of COVID-19 vaccines, designed to protect against newly emerging variants and for use in low-resource settings.”
CEPI has invested in 14 vaccine candidates, eleven of which are still in active development. AstraZeneca, Moderna and Novavax were funded by the CEPI.
Last year, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation published a yearly report calling for nations to invest more in health systems, including the capacity to manufacture vaccines.
“The only real solution to this problem is to have factories that can make enough for the entire world in 100 days,” said Mr. Gates. “And that is doable,” WJS reported.
Gates called on the governments “to contribute billions to tackle future pathogens and increase vaccine supplies,” Times reported.
More from Financial Times:
The philanthropist said that while the Omicron and Delta variants of coronavirus were some of the most transmissive viruses ever seen, the world could have had to face a pathogen causing a far higher rate of fatalities or severe disease.
Gates said the world’s priorities were “strange” and that it had fallen to philanthropists and rich governments to address vaccine inequity. “When we talk about spending billions to save . . . trillions of economic damage and tens of billions of lives, it’s a pretty good insurance policy,” Gates said.
He added that much of the innovation to prepare for a future pandemic could also be useful in tackling existing global health problems, such as by creating a vaccine for HIV and better shots for tuberculosis and malaria.
Gates said the two big funders of vaccine development during the Covid-19 pandemic, CEPI and the US government, were “brave” to put money at risk to create broad portfolios of potential shots. But he admitted that more needed to be done to increase supplies to vaccinate the world.
“It was at-risk money that caused the trials to take place. So there was a huge global benefit. We’re all a lot smarter now. And we need more capacity for the next time,” he said.
Gates has been investing in vaccines for a very long time and it’s been a lucrative venture.
The Gateway Pundit reported that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded a study conducted by Medincell where they confirmed the safety of Ivermectin taken daily in oral form as part of their long-acting injectable ivermectin program.
The French company received a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This aim is to support the evaluation of a long-acting injectable ivermectin formulation as an endectocide for malaria control. The company expanded the program to include injectable ivermectin as COVID-19 preventative medication.