More nations to use Texas based Covid-19 vaccine – KRLD

Corbevax was developed in Houston by Doctors Peter Hotez and Maria Elena Bottazzi in conjunction with the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development.

It is being used in India for adults and 12 to 14-year-olds.More than 14 million adolescents in India have been vaccinated.It will also be delivered to Botswana.And Corbevax is being scaled for production in Botswana so it can be delivered in sub-Saharan Africa.Botswana has broken ground on a vaccine facility and hopes to have it up and running by 2026.

Hotez says, "we're hoping our vaccine makes a big difference to address this terrible global equity gap because that's where the variants of concern are arising.Delta arose out of an unvaccinated population in India and Omicron and the BA.2 out of an unvaccinated population in southern Africa.If we're going to halt these new variants of concern we're going to have to vaccinate the entire world and the hope is our vaccine becomes a key technology for that."

Corbevax has been licensed to an entity in Indonesia and Bangladesh and they're talking to other countries. Doctors Hotez and Bottazzi do not hold a patent and will not profit off the vaccine.

Hotez says he got his MD and Ph.D. 40 years ago to make vaccines for poorer countries."To be able to make this contribution now is extraordinarily gratifying."He is also thankful for the corporate and individual donors who helped make Corbevax possible."This would not have happened if we had not come to Texas.As I often like to say, Texas is a hub for science and innovation."

Corbevax is vegan.There are no animal or human cell lines used in the production of the vaccine.It costs about $1.90 a dose and is based on an older vaccine platform.It has not been approved in the United States but Hotez wishes it was."We would love to make this vaccine available in the United States.We are getting emails from people saying they would love to use our technology because it is similar to the Hepatitis B vaccine that they already gave their kids.We just don't have that US partner right now."

Houston Democratic Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher has nominated doctors Hotez and Bottazzi for the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of their work developing a low-cost COVID-19 vaccine designed to be accessible around the world.

LISTEN TO 1080 KRLD FOR LATEST NEWS, WEATHER & TRAFFIC.

LISTENon theAudacy App

Sign Upand FollowNewsRadio 1080 KRLD

Facebook|Twitter|Instagram

Here is the original post:

More nations to use Texas based Covid-19 vaccine - KRLD