Committing to vaccine R&D: a global science policy priority

Abstract

The amount of vaccine R&D performed, especially that geared towards health issues affecting the developing world, is relatively modest. Despite immunisation representing the most effective tool for achieving disease eradication, and the general consensus being optimistic about the development of a vaccine capable of fighting AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis, neither private nor public entities are investing sufficiently in the field. Reasons can be associated both with a lack of market incentives as well as with the low priority that these diseases are given on Western political agendas. However, seen through a “Global Public Good” lens, it appears to be in the interest of high-income countries, and their governments in particular, to invest public resources – financial and infra-structural – in vaccine R&D for global pandemics. The paper suggests managing international cooperation through the creation of a global fund. It discusses a number of proposals put forward in the existing literature and offers a range of policy options.