Researchers say Japan’s slow development of a vaccine against COVID-19 is linked to decades of stagnant public funding for universities resulting from government slashing overall higher education and research budgets to cope with dwindling national revenue.
But the pandemic reversed the situation last year when government grants were expanded to support new projects that are collaborations between universities and drug companies.
Uemura belongs to a new vaccine development supported by the government’s main funding arm, the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development. The project is the driving force for the next generation vaccines and is a collaboration of researchers, public health institutions and drug companies to develop a safe and reliable product.