It will tap valuable funds for research, but can it balance out industry priorities?

About three years ago, as the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted life across the world, research into a vaccine began at the University of Oxford. Public and charitable financing accounted for 97%-99% of the funding for the vaccine research at Oxford till 2020, with the UK government funding 95.5% of the research after that. The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which was administered in India under the brand name Covishield, was instrumental in immunising crores of Indians. It was a key vaccine that was relatively accessible in Global South countries. The matter of funding that supported the development of a key vaccine is worth revisiting…