G8 rich nations offer up to US$ 6 billion to research and develop new vaccines

(22 February 06)

>from news reports

UK Chancellor Gordon Brown’s pet scheme – that the Group of Eight rich nations should make “advance market commitments” on future vaccines to encourage research and development, even by private industry, was unveiled in Moscow this month. The nations ( Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK, and the US) are expected to approve the scheme in Washington in April, but the funding level is as yet uncertain. It will fall somewhere between US$ 800 million and US$ 6 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Target pathogens under consideration by negotiators are HIV, malaria, TB, pneumococcus, rotavirus and human papillomavirus. Accroding to the Financial Times, vaccines against pneumococcus may lead the pack as a first “experimental” use of the commitments.

The US-based Center for Global Development developed the basic concept now supported by G8 in a report Making Markets for Vaccines. According to the Wall Street Journal “The Bush administration is enthusiastic about the idea because it combines philanthropy with market mechanisms. Unlike some other vaccine proposals, in which donors agree to buy a single company's product once developed, the G8 plan would create a market that would be split among all companies that develop vaccines that are sufficiently safe and effective. Presumably a company whose drug was better than its competitors' products would secure a greater share of the market – a strong incentive for continued improvements and competition.”

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