Vaccines For Poor Countries
Well, doesn't that make a nice read, revelations that pharmaceutical manufacturers have agreed to sign on to a program to supply up to 200 million doses yearly of cut-price pneumococcal vaccines to developing nations. The global immunization alliance, funded by Canada, Britain, Italy, Russia, Norway and (one supposes instead of the U.S.) the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is overseeing the program. With a total investment of $1.5-billion.
The idea being to entice pharmaceutical manufacturers that they might, in the interests of global health, be prepared to present themselves as good global citizens as it were, not merely grubby, greedy bottom-line bottom-feeders. So, if this program works out as planned, the drug industry can begin to wear two hats, one supposes. The original, as above (grubby, greedy, etc.) which is where their collective dark little hearts reside, and an additional one, where they've been arm-wrestled to give a little back.
As 1.6 million lives are lost each year in Africa and Asia primarily, but elsewhere in the world as well, through pneumococcal disease, one of the world's worst child-killers, this is, to say the least, a worthwhile program. A highly needful, and perhaps long-overdue one. Illnesses such as pneumonia and meningitis result from pneumococcal disease, a scourge that requires international attention and pharmacological commitment.
And it is hoped that with the success of this program, others may evolve, to introduce vaccines against rotavirus, the cause of severe diarrhea, along with another experimental vaccine against malaria, both of which manage to kill millions of people each year in undeveloped countries of the world. Manufacturers of these vaccines include Glaxo-SmithKline and Pfizer; they could use a bit of good public-relations news.
The program is termed Advance Market Commitment, a guaranteed market for vaccines supplied to poor nations, setting a maximum price that pharmaceutical manufacturers can anticipate receiving in recompense for their products. The altruistic element exists on the part of the governments involved and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, certainly not the drug manufacturers. Done without compensation for the public good does not describe their end of things.
But we'll take it as it is, for the good it will accomplish.
The idea being to entice pharmaceutical manufacturers that they might, in the interests of global health, be prepared to present themselves as good global citizens as it were, not merely grubby, greedy bottom-line bottom-feeders. So, if this program works out as planned, the drug industry can begin to wear two hats, one supposes. The original, as above (grubby, greedy, etc.) which is where their collective dark little hearts reside, and an additional one, where they've been arm-wrestled to give a little back.
As 1.6 million lives are lost each year in Africa and Asia primarily, but elsewhere in the world as well, through pneumococcal disease, one of the world's worst child-killers, this is, to say the least, a worthwhile program. A highly needful, and perhaps long-overdue one. Illnesses such as pneumonia and meningitis result from pneumococcal disease, a scourge that requires international attention and pharmacological commitment.
And it is hoped that with the success of this program, others may evolve, to introduce vaccines against rotavirus, the cause of severe diarrhea, along with another experimental vaccine against malaria, both of which manage to kill millions of people each year in undeveloped countries of the world. Manufacturers of these vaccines include Glaxo-SmithKline and Pfizer; they could use a bit of good public-relations news.
The program is termed Advance Market Commitment, a guaranteed market for vaccines supplied to poor nations, setting a maximum price that pharmaceutical manufacturers can anticipate receiving in recompense for their products. The altruistic element exists on the part of the governments involved and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, certainly not the drug manufacturers. Done without compensation for the public good does not describe their end of things.
But we'll take it as it is, for the good it will accomplish.
Labels: Health, Human Relations
posted by Pieface @ 7:16 PM
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