<Anchor>
The development team of a coronavirus vaccine approved for emergency use in India has officially declared that it will unusually give up the patent for this vaccine, which can make astronomical money.
They also said that they expect South Korea, which has vaccine production capacity, to participate in vaccine production together.
<Reporter>
Prof. Peter Hotez and Maria Botachi, who are leading the research team at Baylor Medical School, announced that they would give up the patent for the Corona vaccine Corbevax they developed.
But their interest was not to make money from vaccines.
[Peter Hotez/Professor Baylor School of Medicine, USA: (Aren't professors making no money even if the vaccine is widely produced?) We don't want to make money (with the vaccine). We want to get out of this terrible pandemic.]
We see that the pandemic will not end without addressing the vaccine inequality, which is only 8.9% in poor countries compared to 76.8% in rich countries.
[Maria Botachi/Professor Baylor University of Medicine, USA: Vaccine inequality is basically caused by mutations in the virus that create these mutations.]
Corbevax, which conducted two large-scale clinical trials involving 3,000 people in India, also prevented delta mutations. It has been shown to be more than 80% effective.
The genetic recombination method for making Corbevax has been used for hepatitis B vaccines since the 1980s, and it is expected that the side effects will be less and the rejection of vaccination will be less.
The two professors suggested that Korea, with its vaccine production capacity, produce the vaccine together and supply it to low-income countries.
[Maria Botachi/Professor Baylor School of Medicine, USA: We can hand over our research assets, but we can also provide all of our information about the manufacturing process.]
The International Health Organization, which is reviewing this vaccine, the WHO for emergency use. If approved, it is expected that Korea will be able to think more seriously about Corbevacs.