Duterte Prize Money Not Enough, Vaccine Development Costs Over $200M Says Study
DUTERTE P50M REWARD – According to a study published in the American Journal of Public Health, Vaccine development costs at least $200M.
Recently, President Rodrigo Duterte announced that he would give a P10M reward for whoever could find a cure for COVID-19. Afterward, he announced the bounty would be increased to P50M.
However, scientists have voiced out that the prize would be barely enough to buy materials for the research. Moreover, according to the study, research into vaccine development could cost up to $500M.
Within the context of vaccine development, push forces are principally composed of scientific and technological advances, management and coordination support, and availability of research and product development funding
As such, this would be equivalent to around P10 billion to P25 billion. Based on the report, this amount of money would cover the entirety of the research process from development to product registration.
Vaccine research and product development is lengthy, complex, and loaded with binary outcome risks
Meanwhile, experts from the World Health Organization stated that it could take at least a year to 18 month for a vaccine to become available.
Maybe with the new technology, maybe with throwing enough money on it, that’ll happen. But we have to be really careful about those time estimates,
Baylor University’s National School of Tropical Medicine dean Peter Hotez
Recently, the first suggested drug to fight COVID-19, Remdesivir began clinical trials. However, initial drafts of the study revealed that the drug failed human trials.
But, the manufacturers of the drug stated that the drug still showed promising benefits. Moreover, further tests have yet to be conducted on the effectiveness of the drug.
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