Health Affairs Edition on Financing Vaccines

Because poor countries lack the resources, little research and development is conducted on vaccines for diseases that primarily affect them. In the past several years, momentum has been building around an idea that if purchasers would commit, in advance of product development, to pay for vaccines at a fixed, predetermined price, it would eliminate economic uncertainty for vaccine manufacturers and guarantee a market. Ernst Berndt and John Hurvitz describe this novel approach, which is gaining support among governments and private organizations. Other papers with international dimensions include those by Tracy Lieu and colleagues, who point out that collaborations engaging private philanthropy and governments have led to increased uses of vaccines in developing countries; an action plan for maximizing access to needed vaccines in low-income countries by Julie Milstien and colleagues; a view by David Salisbury on how the U.K. National Health Service manages vaccines; and a review by Robert Northrup of a book by Ruth Levine and others that details diverse stories of success in addressing health problems in the developing world.