by J.S., V4 Agency
This time, the billionaire speculator has targeted the pharmaceutical industry and plans to make a significant investment in a Belgian company.
Belgian daily L’Echo has revealed that US speculator George Soros is planning to follow in the footsteps of Bill Gates and make a heavy investment in a Belgian company called Univercells, which is involved in the development of a coronavirus vaccine.
According to The Brussels Times, billionaire Bill Gates has invested some 30 million dollars in the company since 2016, which currently produces a low-cost polio vaccine for areas where the disease still poses a problem. Vaccines against rubella, rabies and measles are in the works and, because of the coronavirus pandemic, the company has also started work on teh production of a Covid-19 vaccine.
The investors include Belgium’s federal government and the Walloon government and, according to press reports, US stock market speculator George Soros also has plans to join the business through the Soros Economic Development Fund.
The Belgian company was co-founded in 2013 by its current CEO Hugues Bultot and Chief Technical Officer Jose Castillo. It’s main profile is producing large volumes of vaccines in small batches and, since the manufacturing process takes place on small production lines, their product costs are much lower than those of leading pharmaceutical companies.
Univercells is planning to embark on the full-scale production of the vaccine in the first half of next year. The company, which now has 200 employees and is expected to hire new workers has promised to install some new production lines next year.