A number of companies have recently made announcements that they will be developing new plants based in Africa. This whole process may take a year or longer, but I think we really have an opportunity here, with the technology help that has been established by the WHO. They have the expertise.
There is significant demand. There are local producers who are willing to make the vaccine, and they have produced initial doses. They obviously now need to go through clinical trials, because they have used the sequence that was made available by Moderna—or the same formula that Moderna is using was available—but without help from the industry.
I think that if we want to make an impact in the short run in addition to COVAX, a significant major step will be to engage the pharmaceutical industry and get it to help this hub, because the technology transfer in the short term is the real solution. I think that is the process that will speed things up a lot.
We need about 10 billion doses in low-income countries. From what I understand, COVAX has committed to about a billion doses. There is a massive gap, and to meet that gap by the end of this year—70% coverage in low-income countries— seems like an impossible task given the current mechanisms that we have.