Believe In Vaccine Bets Like Bill Gates's
Commitment of public or private funds upfront speeds development, production and distribution.
Doing good after doing well.
Photographer: JEFF PACHOUD/AFPAs the coronavirus crisis grinds on, many companies and university research labs are trying to develop vaccines. Let's hope one of them achieves a breakthrough -- the sooner the better. But as my Bloomberg Opinion colleague Max Nisen pointed out recently, the challenge doesn’t stop there.
Once a vaccine is found, you have to manufacture it and deliver it to the population. The catch is, manufacturers may not have the means or motivation to invest in mass production. That’s why Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is devoting money to help build factories to produce vaccines, even before one is developed.
Of course, nobody is concerned that there won’t be demand for coronavirus vaccines; there’s a global pandemic going on, after all. But even so, the vaccine market won’t be as deep as we’d like: many who will need vaccines won’t have the resources to get them. For this reason, manufacturers may lack the incentive to make vaccines for vast swaths of the population.