A plantation of saplings with bark that holds the promise of potent vaccines is being nurtured in a forest in Chile's wine country.
Down a dusty farm track and behind a wooden gate wrapped in chains, forestry experts are nursing quillay trees, known as quillaja saponaria, a rare evergreen native to the South American country that have long been used by the indigenous Mapuche people to make soap and medicine.
More recently, they have been used to make a highly successful vaccine against shingles and the world’s first malaria vaccine.
Now two saponin molecules, made from the bark of branches pruned from older trees in Chile’s forests, are being used for a Covid-19 vaccine developed by US drug producer Novavax. The chemicals are used to make adjuvant, a substance that boosts the immune system.
Over the next two years, Novavax plans to produce billions of doses of the vaccine, mostly for low and middle-income countries, which would make it one of the largest Covid-19 vaccine suppliers in the world.
With no reliable data on how many healthy quillay trees are left in Chile, experts and industry officials are divided on how quickly the supply of older trees will be depleted by rising demand. But nearly everyone agrees that industries relying on quillay extracts will at some point need to switch to plantation-grown trees or a lab-grown alternative.
Analysis of export data from trade data provider ImportGenius shows the supply of older trees is under increasing pressure. Exports of quillay products more than tripled to more than 3,600 tonnes per year in the decade before the pandemic.
Ricardo San Martin, who developed the pruning and extraction process that created the modern quillay industry, said producers must immediately work towards making quillay products from younger, plantation-grown trees.
“My estimate four years ago was that we were heading towards the sustainability limit,” he said.
Mr San Martin said he has toiled through the pandemic in the basement of his oceanfront cabin in Sea Ranch, California, to refine a process that could help produce saponins from leaves and twigs to maximise the yield.
“I am working as though this needs to be done yesterday,” said Mr San Martin, who is also sponsoring a project in which drones will count quillay trees in remote and hard-to-access forests, to determine how many are left.
Quillay producers and their customers say the harvest can continue for now without destroying the supply of older trees.
“We continue to monitor the situation in Chile, in close collaboration with our supplier, but at this time we are confident in our supply,” Novavax said. The company also said “life-saving vaccines will be prioritised”.
The desert-plant extract company Desert King International, which runs the Casablanca plantation, is Novavax’s sole supplier of quillay extracts and Chile’s largest quillay exporter by far.
Ready to make 4.4 billion doses
The company’s manager in Chile, Andres Gonzalez, said it is able to produce enough quillay extract from older trees to make up to 4.4 billion vaccine doses in 2022. With new supplies from privately owned native forests, they have enough raw material to meet demand for the rest of this year and part of next, he said.
Mr Gonzalez said the company, where Mr San Martin is a consultant, has built a new production plant and has the capacity to supply other interested pharmaceutical companies – all without harming the forests. He acknowledged that “at some point these native forests will come to an end”.
“We want to start having very productive plantations and we are working on that," he said.
A relatively small volume of quillay extract is required to make vaccines – just under one milligram per dose – but the supply is stretched by the demand from other industries. Quillay products are also used as a natural additive in animal feed, a biopesticide and an agent to reduce pollution in mining.
Quillay trees grow outside Chile, but Chile is the only country where mature quillay is harvested from forests in large quantities.
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Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
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The Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index
The Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index
Mazen Abukhater, principal and actuary at global consultancy Mercer, Middle East, says the company’s Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index - which benchmarks 34 pension schemes across the globe to assess their adequacy, sustainability and integrity - included Saudi Arabia for the first time this year to offer a glimpse into the region.
The index highlighted fundamental issues for all 34 countries, such as a rapid ageing population and a low growth / low interest environment putting pressure on expected returns. It also highlighted the increasing popularity around the world of defined contribution schemes.
“Average life expectancy has been increasing by about three years every 10 years. Someone born in 1947 is expected to live until 85 whereas someone born in 2007 is expected to live to 103,” Mr Abukhater told the Mena Pensions Conference.
“Are our systems equipped to handle these kind of life expectancies in the future? If so many people retire at 60, they are going to be in retirement for 43 years – so we need to adapt our retirement age to our changing life expectancy.”
Saudi Arabia came in the middle of Mercer’s ranking with a score of 58.9. The report said the country's index could be raised by improving the minimum level of support for the poorest aged individuals and increasing the labour force participation rate at older ages as life expectancies rise.
Mr Abukhater said the challenges of an ageing population, increased life expectancy and some individuals relying solely on their government for financial support in their retirement years will put the system under strain.
“To relieve that pressure, governments need to consider whether it is time to switch to a defined contribution scheme so that individuals can supplement their own future with the help of government support,” he said.
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The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Meydan race card
6.30pm: Maiden; Dh165,000; (Dirt) 1,200m
7.05pm: Handicap; Dh170,000; (D) 1,200m
7.40pm: Maiden; Dh165,000; (D) 1,900m
8.15pm: Handicap; Dh185,000; (D) 2,000m
8.50pm: Handicap; Dh185,000; (D) 1,600m
9.25pm: Handicap; Dh165,000; (D) 2,000m
Results
5.30pm: Maiden Dh165,000 (Turf) 1,600m; Winner: Al Battar, Mickael Barzalona (jockey), Salem bin Ghadayer (trainer).
6.05pm: Maiden Dh165,000 (Dirt) 1,200m; Winner: Good Fighter, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar.
6.40pm: Handicap Dh185,000 (T) 1,200m; Winner: Way Of Wisdom, Tadhg O’Shea, Satish Seemar.
7.15pm: Handicap Dh170,000 (D) 2,200m; Winner: Immortalised, Tadhg O’Shea, Satish Seemar.
7.50pm: Handicap Dh185,000 (T) 2,000m; Winner: Franz Kafka, James Doyle, Simon Crisford.
8.25pm: Handicap Dh185,000 (D) 1,200m; Winner: Mayadeen, Connor Beasley, Doug Watson.
9pm: Handicap Dh185,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Chiefdom, Mickael Barzalona, Salem bin Ghadayer
The team
Photographer: Mateusz Stefanowski at Art Factory
Videographer: Jear Valasquez
Fashion director: Sarah Maisey
Make-up: Gulum Erzincan at Art Factory
Model: Randa at Art Factory Videographer’s assistant: Zanong Magat
Photographer’s assistant: Sophia Shlykova
With thanks to Jubail Mangrove Park, Jubail Island, Abu Dhabi
UAE squad
Esha Oza (captain), Al Maseera Jahangir, Emily Thomas, Heena Hotchandani, Indhuja Nandakumar, Katie Thompson, Lavanya Keny, Mehak Thakur, Michelle Botha, Rinitha Rajith, Samaira Dharnidharka, Siya Gokhale, Sashikala Silva, Suraksha Kotte, Theertha Satish (wicketkeeper) Udeni Kuruppuarachchige, Vaishnave Mahesh.
UAE tour of Zimbabwe
All matches in Bulawayo
Friday, Sept 26 – First ODI
Sunday, Sept 28 – Second ODI
Tuesday, Sept 30 – Third ODI
Thursday, Oct 2 – Fourth ODI
Sunday, Oct 5 – First T20I
Monday, Oct 6 – Second T20I
BMW M5 specs
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