Manufacturers Join Push to Vaccinate Developing Countries
The world's four leading vaccine manufacturers have joined forces with organizations and governments around the world to stamp out vaccine-preventable diseases in developing countries. Merck, American Home Products, SmithKline Beecham, and Aventis will donate millions of doses of vaccines to prevent hepatitis B infection, polio, Haemophilus influenzae infection, and more. In addition, the companies will step up their research to develop vaccines against HIV/AIDS and malaria.
International Efforts
Announcing the actions at a recent White House meeting of company CEOs and executives from international health organizations, President Clinton said, "[T]oday we're beginning a partnership to eradicate the leading infectious killers of our time, speeding the delivery of existing vaccines and getting to the heart of the problem -- the lack of incentives for private industry to invest in new vaccines for people who simply can't afford to buy them."
The donations signal strong support among vaccine manufacturers for Clinton's Millennium Vaccine Initiative. During his State of the Union address in January, Clinton asked pharmaceutical companies, international health agencies, foundations, and national governments to join in efforts to fight infectious diseases. "We can save millions of lives together, and we ought to do it," he said.
The initiative includes federal funding to develop effective vaccines against malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS plus a new federal tax credit to spur additional research by making the sale of vaccines in developing countries more profitable. The Clinton administration has asked the World Bank and other international development banks to set aside $400 million to $900 million annually in low interest rate loans to improve basic health services in developing countries.
The initiative also includes a $50 million contribution to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) to purchase vaccines. Formed in 1999, GAVI is a collaborative effort of UNICEF, the World Health Organization, the World Bank Group, the Bill and Melinda Gates Children's Vaccine Program, the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations, and others to ensure that every child in the world is protected against vaccine-preventable diseases.
"We have to first build on the bipartisan support that now exists in our Congress to enact the research and experimentation tax credit...and to get the funding increases through," Clinton said at the White House meeting. Legislation has already been introduced that would put at least some of the administration's plan into effect.
The Problem
Across the globe, almost 3 million people die annually from diseases that could have been prevented by currently available vaccines. Although it costs only $15 to immunize a child, children in developing countries are 10 times more likely to die of a vaccine-preventable disease than those in industrialized nations. Twenty percent of the world's children lack access to basic immunization services. Adding to the problem, highly effective vaccines do not yet exist for malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS, diseases that kill more than 5 million people annually.
Recent work on genetic sequencing and other scientific breakthroughs promise tremendous advances in vaccine development. However, at present, only 2% of all global biomedical research is devoted to major microbial killers in developing countries.