Microsoft co-founder and former world’s richest person Bill Gates praised Indian vaccine manufacturers for making affordable vaccines and applauded the country’s efforts to supply vaccines across the world.

The billionaire philanthropist was addressing a virtual roundtable on India – US Health Partnership organised by the Indian embassy on Tuesday.

Gates said that India has delivered over 150 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines to nearly 100 countries across the world over the past year.

“At the same time, thanks to Indian vaccine manufacturers, almost every country in the world now is offering vaccines to protect children from diseases such Pneumonia and Rotavirus, which have been leading causes of child's deaths for decades,” he said.

Notably, the roundtable was organised with the view of bringing together stakeholders from India and the United States to leverage the bilateral partnership, making affordable vaccines available to the world.

Speaking at the conference, Gates explained, “While this pandemic isn't yet over, we have begun to look beyond the emergency response. This means not only controlling Covid but also being ready to stop future outbreaks before they become pandemics and continuing to fight all the infectious diseases.”

He further said in his remarks that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had talked about upholding India’s commitment to supply vaccines to the world and to harness the country’s science and technological advances for the betterment of the world.

"This is a shared ambition and partnerships are central to making it a reality," he said.

According to Gates, the three vaccines, namely, Covaxin, Corbevax and Covishield, were products of the partnerships that bridged sectors and borders.

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Referring to the Quad group, the grouping of four nations including India, US, Australia and Japan, Gates said, “The Quad country partnership with Bio E. to produce over a billion vaccines is an example of how these partnerships can be scaled up to support an equitable response.”

Gates further pointed out collaborations between vaccine manufacturers was the need of the hour, warning that the world will almost certainly see another pandemic, even as the risks of Covid-19 have subsided dramatically.

He said, “This is what makes initiatives like the developing country's vaccine manufacturers networks so exciting. Everyone involved understands that if we want to make COVID-19 the last pandemic, we need to invest now in collaborative efforts.”

"We can't predict where the advances to give us better tools will come from, but we do know that our investments today will determine whether these advances come on time and whether they are ready to reach everyone who needs them," Gates added.

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