PFIZER’s Georgian Researcher: Georgia is Capable of Creating Medications and Vaccines

Georgia is capable of creating its own medications and vaccines. This business will bring huge profits, leading researcher of Phizer’s New York Office Aleksandre Esadze told in this interview for Jandacva.ge portal.

It is excellent when Georgia manufactures medications, but manufacturing countries receive only a small portion of profits, while the genuine and real value of a product consists in the intellectual ownership, he said. „For example, India is one of the biggest vaccine manufacturers, but not a creator. When you create your own medications, this is a different level and you receive much higher profits than by manufacturing vaccines created by others. Let’s take the vaccine. It was created in 10 months and USD 2 billion was spent on it.

Profits from creating your own vaccine grow 10-15 times. USD 20-30 billion is Georgia’s state budget for 2-3 years! This signifies that very much money is required, but results and profits are also very impressive”, Esadze noted. In response to the question, how realistic it is for Georgia to create its own vaccines, Esadze noted that this process cannot be organized in one day, but it is absolutely feasible with the support of the Government. “The Government of Georgia should increase funding of this field. 1,000-GEL and 2,000-GEL grants cannot bring real results. This issue should be carried out at the state policy level and long-term investments should be carried out.

I know Georgia’s current reality, but we should think about this today. For example, the part of international assistance that Georgia received as part of the COVID-19 pandemic may be directed to strengthening the research field. We should understand that investments made today will bring results in several years – initially, we should arrange infrastructure, buy equipment and invite specialists to Georgia”, Aleksadnre Esadze said.