Several Latin American scientists have forged ahead with research programs on vaccines to combat COVID-19. At present, no vaccine is available for the virus that has infected millions and killed hundreds of thousands of people worldwide.

According to Nature news outlet, several possible candidates, most of them backed by pharmaceutical firms from different countries, particularly in China, Europe and the United States, have tried their vaccines on humans.

However, researchers want a reserve strategy or proposal should the well-resourced frontrunners fail. They believe signing a partnership with foreign supporters would keep them from reaching both low- and middle-earning nations.

Their objectives repeat long-lasting initiatives all over Latin America to capitalize on public understanding and create or recreate scientific independence from foreign pharmaceutical firms.

Joining the COVID-19 Vaccine Race

Rather than wait to see the result, researchers within Latin America are now working to look for, and discover their own solution to get out of this pandemic. 

And, as Latin America turns out to be the pandemic's new epicenter, apprehensions about the outlook of depending on a vaccine that is developed and manufactured somewhere else, particularly, given that wealthy nations had more convenient and easier access to vaccines before.

According to global health researcher Gavin Yamey, from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, they've already seen some domineering behavior, even when there was no COVID-19 yet.

Moreover, according to news reports, some governments in high-earning nations have attempted to purchase vaccine-manufacturing firms or at least acquire a proportion of their products.

Honduran microbiologist Maria Elena Bottazzi from Baylon College of Medicine in Texas said, the only ones "who are going to solve the problems in the region," are them-Latin Americans.

She added, no one was there to come and rescue them. Bottazzi, who's developing a vaccine for COVID-19 shared, she is planning to distribute throughout Latin America by collaborating with local hubs that produce vaccines. These local hubs include Brazil, Argentina and Mexico.

Finding Solutions for a Vaccine in Innovation and Partnership

At present, some groups are at work on guaranteeing equal access. However, according to Sinergium Biotech director, Fernando Lobos, there is a need for billions of doses worldwide ", and no single provider has the ability to supply that amount of need." Sinergium is a Buenos-Aires-based vaccine manufacturer.

Meanwhile, for vaccinologist Luciana Leite, from the Butantan Institute of Sao Paulo, "Innovation is the key." She explained that the world would need substitutes of vaccine candidates that use conservative approaches do not succeed.

Several weeks back, biotechnologist Laura Palomares, contacted a colleague to seek help with the vaccine for the virus she is creating. 

The biotechnologist who is using virus-like particles with the virus she is developing shared her colleague's response shocked her.

Palomares said her friend agreed to help her, although she remembered him telling her, he doesn't know why she "is wasting her time doing this."

She also recalled that time when he asked her why she's bothering to develop a vaccine "when the first successful vaccines would come from abroad."

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