E-drug: Malaria vaccine
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Dear all,
I am working on a project to induce drug companies to develop a
malaria vaccine at the Department of Economics at Harvard. The
method to do this is through a pull mechanism, whereby a market is
created by an agency, such as the World Bank, guarantying to purchase
a minimum, specified amount of vaccine doses (in the millions). The
price paid for each vaccine should be based on effectiveness
(duration of effectives, adverse effects etc) and
ease of distribution (cold chain, oral administration etc). This
would be a legal document. The problem that arises is how to
measure and quantify effectiveness as well as including all potential
characteristics of the vaccines before a vaccine is actually
developed. For example, a company may produce a vaccine that meets
all legal requirements and thus must be paid, but the vaccine may
turn out not to be useful (e.g. only effective in the elderly). Can
anyone think of a way to get out this dilemma?
Chandresh Harjivan
Corpus Christi College
Oxford University
OX1 4JF
tel:(44) 07980 196 767
"Chandresh Harjivan" <chandresh.harjivan@sbs.ox.ac.uk>
JFK School of Government
Harvard University
02138
tel: +1 617 496 0744