By Muhammad Amaan
The founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, said progress is ongoing in the clinical trial of the M72 tuberculosis vaccine, expressing optimism in its offering 70 per cent efficacy.
Gates, who is co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said this while responding to questions during an interview session with selected journalists on Tuesday in Abuja.
The interview was held on the sidelines of the 2024 NutriVision, a pan-African dialogue to discuss transformative solutions to combating malnutrition and shaping Africa’s future.
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease that most often affects the lungs and is caused by a type of bacteria.
It spreads through the air when infected people cough, sneeze or spit.
According to the World Health Organisation, 10.6 million people fell ill with TB in 2022 and 1.3 million died, mostly in low- and middle-income countries.
Gates said that tuberculosis was difficult to diagnose, and grossly underfunded, noting that Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) remained a public health crisis and a health security threat.
“We have a lot of new drugs. The current drugs, sadly, you’ll have to take them for nine months. And, there’s some TB out there that is drug resistant, either single drug resistant or multi drug resistant.
“And so, we’re making great progress on the drugs and bringing new drugs in, and as you say, we’re also working on a vaccine.
“That vaccine trial is going to take like four years. We’re hoping that the vaccine will show like a 70 per cent reduction. We don’t think it’s likely to show a 90 per cent reduction,” he said.
The co-chair said that the vaccine trial, which would cost $500 million, was done in collaboration with GSK and the Wellcome Trust.
Gates foundation’s Medical Research Institute (Gates MRI), on March 19, announced a Phase 3 clinical trial to assess the efficacy of the M72/AS01E tuberculosis vaccine.
It said that the vaccine, if shown to be well-tolerated and effective, could potentially become the first new TB vaccine in over a century to help prevent pulmonary TB in adolescents and adults.
Ending the TB epidemic by 2030 is among the health targets of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Gates is visiting Nigeria, as part of his foundation’s ongoing commitment to Africa’s development.
During his short visit, Gates met with national and local leaders, partners, grantees and innovators.
Gates, alongside other foundation leaders, also met with experts in primary health care, agriculture, and nutrition who are driving progress across the continent, despite economic challenges.
He participated in the NutriVision Dialogue with Jon Batiste, a musician, educator and humanitarian.
