PATH participates in congressional briefing on vaccines
Senator Richard Lugar led a congressional briefing on using advance market commitments to accelerate worldwide access to vaccines. Photo: PATH.
How can more children around the world gain access to lifesaving vaccines? PATH president Christopher Elias, MD, MPH, and panelists from the Center for Vaccine Development in Mali, the GAVI Alliance, and PneumoADIP at Johns Hopkins discussed one possible solution at a congressional briefing this week: an innovative financing mechanism called advance market commitments (AMCs).
Senator Richard G. Lugar (R-IN), sponsor of the bipartisan legislation introduced in both houses of the US Congress, led off the briefing, “From Theory to Action: Accelerating Worldwide Access to Lifesaving Vaccines.”
An advance market commitment is designed to spur private investment in vaccines needed by poor countries. Donor countries commit to a pool of funds to attract manufacturers to develop the new vaccines. If a manufacturer meets the product specifications and countries choose their product, the AMC funds will close the gap between the price the countries can afford to pay and the cost of research and development and of ramping up production facilities. After the AMC period, the manufacturers are legally obligated to supply the vaccines at a price the countries can sustainably afford.
AMCs offer a powerful and cost-effective way to accelerate the development and availability of new vaccines against diseases that are killing millions of children in developing countries each year. Learn more about AMCs at this GAVI Alliance website:www.vaccineamc.org.
Learn more about PATH’s work in vaccines and immunization.
Posted November 1, 2007.