E-DRUG: USD 1.5b package aims to boost supply of new vaccine
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Development Today DT 4/2008 April 7, 2008
Please visit the Development Today website for the full article.
www.development-today.com
.......The Advance Market Commitment (AMC) is a USD 1.5 billion carrot to
industry. The whole experiment rides on setting the "right" price. Too
high, and AMC could end up as a giant subsidy to drug firms. Too low and
companies might not take the bait.
Though the concept of AMC has been around for over a decade, such an aid
financing model has never been tried before. In its current form, it
originates from a 2005 proposal by Harvard economist Michael Kremer and
Ruth Levine of the Center for Global Development in Washington DC. This
pilot AMC project aims to make pneumococcal vaccine available to the poor.
The win-win scenario, proponents say, is that donors pay nothing until a
vaccine that meets World Health Organisation specs is in place, while
industry is guaranteed a market that would otherwise be too risky to invest
in.
If it works, the public health benefits could be enormous. Pneumonia and
meningitis kill almost 800,000 children under age five each year, according
to the WHO. Without AMC, there would be a time lag of some 15 years between
release of a vaccine in rich countries and release in poor countries. With
AMC in place, pneumococcal vaccine could be available in the poorest
countries as early as 2010........
..........At a key meeting next month, the donors will decide on the price
per dose that will be the cornerstone of this AMC deal.
If the price is too high, the long-term demand from poor country
governments might not materialise, which in turn would make it less
interesting for industry to invest in additional manufacturing capacity. If
the price is too low, industry might not take the bait at all.
"For me the main question is 'how big does the carrot have to get'?" says
Tido von Schoen-Angerer, Director of the Campaign for Access to Essential
Medicines at Medecins Sans Frontieres. He welcomes the AMC initiative, and
supports the choice of pneumococcal disease for this pilot, but points to
major uncertainties in finding a price that will work. He notes that all
financial modelling is limited by the fact that the real costs borne by
industry of research and increased production capacity remain
unknown...................
Please visit the Development Today website for the full article.
www.development-today.com