India leading vaccine producer, need cooperation on COVID-19 vaccine: Gates

New York: Microsoft founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates has said the world is looking forward to India as it a leading vaccine producer on a global scale.

Speaking to PTI, Bill Gates has said, “India is a leading vaccine producer, we need cooperation from India on manufacturing Covid-19 vaccine. The world is looking at India for some of that capacity to be available to developing countries.”

Bill Gates has also spoken of his plans to brokering for a coronavirus vaccine in India and said, "Brokering an idea of taking a vaccine and manufacturing it in India, even if it comes from AstraZeneca, Oxford, Novavax or Johnson and Johnson."

Bill Gates also said, “It is very likely that roll-out of Covid-19 vaccine will take place in fairly big volume (in India) sometime next year.” He said, "Obviously, all of us want to get a vaccine out in India as fast as we can, once we know that it's very effective and very safe, and so the plans are coming into focus that sometime next year, it's very likely that roll-out will take place and take place in fairly big volume."

Bill Gates also said that he is quite optimistic that by the first quarter of next year, several Covid-19 vaccine candidates will be in their final stages.

India has three coronavirus vaccine candidates undergoing clinical trials, including the Oxford vaccine that is being manufactured along with AstraZeneca. Serum Institute of India (SII) is conducting the trials in India in different cities and will also be producing the coronavirus vaccine in large scale.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the world's largest charities, has been working across the world to contain the pandemic. In India, the foundation has entered into a partnership with the Serum Institute to accelerate the manufacturing and delivery of Covid-19 vaccines.

Apart from AstraZeneca, India is also trying two of its indigenous coronavirus vaccine candidates that are being developed by Bharat Biotech, called Covaxin, and another by Zydus Cadila.