Seth Berkeley on the need for new incentives

Overcoming the biomedical obstacles to an AIDS vaccine is perhaps the toughest public-health test of our time. But a large part of the challenge thus far has been a matter of policy. Most of the expertise in developing vaccines is held by Big Pharma. Yet it's been difficult to convince the private sector to invest in vaccines—traditionally high-volume products that provide relatively low return on investment. Unlike a drug that patients may have to take for a lifetime, an effective vaccine is literally a "one shot" deal—there are virtually no repeat customers.