Two companies to get $5 million each to buy the technology needed for developing locally relevant vaccines, the organization says
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has announced that it is committing $40 million in funding to enhance access in parts of Africa to a “low-cost” mRNA vaccine research and manufacturing platform for targeted protection against the continent’s various diseases.
The non-profit organization said on Monday that Quantoom Biosciences, a Belgian biotech company, will receive $20 million to “further advance the technology and lower costs for commercialization.” The Institut Pasteur de Dakar in Senegal and Biovac in South Africa have each been allocated $5 million to purchase the technology, the foundation stated.
“The Gates Foundation will grant another $10 million to other LMIC [low- and middle-income countries] vaccine manufacturers to be named,” it announced.
An mRNA vaccine employs a method that determines what…