A dire moment in the pandemic ... was the chance he'd been waiting for

Brazilian scientist Sotiris Missailidis heads research and development at his country's premier agency for vaccine development, the Bio-Manguinhos Fiocruz foundation. He's been a key advocate for shifting Brazil's strategy toward inventing its own vaccines. (Ian Cheibub for NPR)

For Sotiris Missailidis, early 2021 was one of the most disheartening moments of the pandemic: The most cutting-edge vaccines against COVID – the ones using mRNA – were still in short supply. The only two companies that make them – Moderna and Pfizer – were effectively only selling them to wealthy countries.

Months earlier, Missailidis and colleagues at Brazil's premier agency for vaccines had approached the companies with what could have been a solution to head off this very scenario: They asked the companies to share their know-how so Brazil could make the vaccines in its own factories. He recalls: "Neither of them accepted."