A British scientist who is co-leading the efforts to develop a vaccine for Covid-19 confirmed that the vaccine that the world is waiting for if it proves successful will be priced so that it can be obtained as widely as possible, and it will be manufactured on a large scale to reduce costs and increase supply.
Adrian Hill, director of the Jenner Institute at Oxford University who works with AstraZeneca to develop the vaccine, said ensuring the vaccine was distributed widely and reducing costs was essential to the project from the start.
"This vaccine will not be very expensive. It will be a vaccine given in one dose. It will be manufactured to provide it globally in many different locations. This has always been our plan."
Hill and his team are competing in a frantic race to find a vaccine to prevent the emerging coronavirus, which caused the Covid-19 pandemic.
Initial data from an experimental vaccine trial on 6 monkeys revealed that some developed antibodies against the virus within 14 days after giving them a single dose, while all developed protective antibodies within 28 days.
When the monkeys were exposed to the Corona virus, the vaccine seemed to prevent damage to the lungs and prevent the virus from cloning even though it was still actively reproducing in the nose.
The Hill team began early human vaccine trials in April, making it one of the few research teams to have reached this stage.