Global vaccine fund could save thousands of lives: scientists

The creation of a whopping USD 2 billion global vaccine-development fund could prevent the future outbreak of many deadly diseases such as Ebola and help save thousands of lives, a team of physicians has proposed.
Ebola is a preventable disease, and yet a safe and effective vaccine has not been deployed, the physicians said.
As with many vaccines, financial barriers persist - pharmaceutical companies see high costs with limited market potential, and government support is lacking.
However, there may be a solution to this vaccine crisis with the ability to save at-risk populations, according to a perspective piece written by physicians based at Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania and the Wellcome Trust.

In the case of Ebola, vaccine candidates were available well before the time of the outbreak, but there were no funds to test them, the authors said.
Had one been tested, public health workers could have vaccinated people from the start, saving thousands of lives.

"Preventing infectious diseases should not be held back by a lack of funds," said essay author Adel Mahmoud, professor at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and Department of Molecular Biology.
The writers liken their proposal to that of the antibiotic-resistance fund supported by US President Barack Obama's 2016 US budget.
The two funds could work in tandem to address some of the world's most pressing global health issues, the authors wrote.

The physicians noted that the complexity of a disease often requires substantial funding for a vaccine, and there are now only four vaccine manufacturers in the developed world.
Likewise, pharmaceutical companies must also grapple with a vaccine's market potential. In the case of many vaccine-preventable diseases, the vaccine reach is low.
This causes manufactures to be less eager to invest in a vaccine's development.
Cost is one of the biggest obstacles to vaccine development, the researchers said. Depending on the disease, a vaccine costs between USD 500 million and USD 1.
This includes research and development, and three phases of clinical trials - the last being necessary for licensure and the most costly.

Given the substantial capital needed at the onset, few companies are willing to buy in.
A global vaccine-development fund could help shoulder the financial burden, the researchers said. The USD 2 billion needed at the onset would cover "death valley," the phases between vaccine discovery and late-stage development.
The authors concluded that the Ebola crisis should serve as a lesson for other infectious diseases and global health crises.
The article was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.