I reproduce some excerpts below:
“An unusual vaccine development collaboration, which should lead to the launch of a cheap meningitis vaccine for Sub-Saharan Africa later this year, is emerging as a feasible way forward in the quest to make newer vaccines affordable in developing countries.
The Serum Institute of India’s vaccine for meningitis — a bacterial infection of the brain — was developed under an unusual technology transfer pact with the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). It is expected to receive certification this month from the WHO, and UNICEF will supply 40 million doses to Sub-Saharan Africa later this year. Meningitis can be prevented with vaccination, but the technology is complex and beyond
the capacity of scientists in developing countries.
….If made by large pharmaceutical companies the meningitis vaccine would have cost US$2.5-3 per dose but, under the Serum Institute, the vaccine will cost 50 US cents per dose — a limit imposed by the NIH after consulting with African nations. Profits will be driven by the ‘low cost, high volume’ principle rather than ‘high cost, low volume’.
…A report from the international medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières and Oxfam — released last month (11 May) — describes the collaboration as an “intriguing model” of vaccine development in developing countries, in which a vaccine with specific characteristics tailored to a particular population is developed at a modest cost and provisions to ensure sustainable access are built in from the start.”
The low cost high volume principle is one that is particularly attractive for India. And we hope that many companies will follow suit in the years to come. Particularly since Moser Baer has had tremendous success with such a model. And Merck tasted a bit of this success when it transposed this model to the pharma arena and sold Januvia at 1/5th of the global price.
In whole paradigm the situation of middle-income countries is difficult.
Generic versions of vaccines are not made as the vaccines made by different manufacturers cannot be guaranteed to be the same. But in such situation, would not it be fair to encourage the new and promising manufacturers (provided they maintain reasonable cost) to produce them and let the CTs, regulatory approval, safety, quality, validation of GMP and other prequalification assays would be sponsored by international welfare organizations like UNICEF, WHO. This would lower the cost in certain way.
Besides, the high cost of the vaccine is also associated with presentation components (syringes and vials, etc.) Can the work be tendered out? India and China has cheap labor.
But the million dollar question still remains as to the the delivery mechanisms that has to ramped up to ensure that the actual product ends up in the right place…..
My experience with the african students, administrators, and professionals who have worked in the sector have long lamented the fatc that the pilferage of aid in africa is of monumental proportions ,something that needs to be checked swiftly and precisely.
But having saying that,i do understand that such a joit effort is very needed to take the continent out of the massive epidemics that plague it.