Our only hope for returning to a lifestyle of normalcy lies in the development of a vaccine for coronavirus. Once a vaccine is approved, the hurdles of manufacturing and distribution remain. A recent Singularity Hub article discussed a partnership between the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Serum Institute of India that aims to take on the burden.
With Gates’ funding, Serum plans to manufacture 100 million doses of Oxford University’s vaccine for poor countries at a cost of $3 or less per dose. A separate deal between Serum and AstraZeneca aims to produce a billion doses of Oxford’s licensed vaccine for low- and middle-income countries. While still not approved, Oxford’s vaccine yielded encouraging results on phase 1 and 2 clinical trials with only mild side effects including headaches and a mild fever.
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