Bangladeshi vaccine scientist wins Ramon Magsaysay Award

File photo shows Bangladeshi scientist Firdausi Qadri (left) administering an oral cholera vaccine to a man in Dhaka. - Ramon Magsaysay Foundation

MANILA (AFP): A Bangladeshi scientist who helped develop a cheap oral vaccine against cholera, a Pakistani microfinance pioneer and a Filipino fisherman were among Tuesday's (Sept 1) winners of Asia's equivalent to the Nobel Prize.

Firdausi Qadri, 70, was one of five recipients of the Ramon Magsaysay Award -- named after a Filipino president killed in a plane crash -- for her "life-long devotion to the scientific profession" and "untiring contributions to vaccine development".