[Ip-health] criticisms of amc's

[Michelle Childs]

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[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
There has been  some  negative coverage about AMC's in the British
Press lately. Focuses on profits to pharma, cost to Dc's and problems
of vaccine strain used. See below
Michelle

First this in the newspaper the Independent on the costs:

http://news.independent.co.uk/health/article3172164.ece


By Jonathan Miller
Published: 18 November 2007

<,SNIP> Drugs companies could receive mark-ups of 700 per cent under
a plan,
spearheaded by Gordon Brown, to fund the development of a vaccine aimed
at saving millions of children's lives in developing countries. Of =A3750m
donated for the scheme 80 per cent will go in profits to the companies,
according to one expert.


Then on TV: Channel 4 news did a report  from Malawi critiquing the
current pneumococcal AMC
You can watch the report or read the transcript here:
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/international_politics/
the%20reality%20of%20vaccinating%20africa/1069057

<snip>

Professor Donald W Light from the Centre for Bioethics, Princeton
University, says: "Yes, the current so-called AMC contract calls for
a price where 80 per cent of the 1.5 billion donated will not go to
doses, to immunise infants and little children and save them from
serious disease and death but will go to profits of GSK and Wyeth.
And I think thats indefensible."

Dr Neil French, Directorof Karonga Prevention Study, conducts field
trials in Malawi to test whether pneumococcal vaccines are going to
be effective in a part of the world where HIV is rife.

"This is the pneumococcus," he says, "Which is the bacteria that is
responsible for the majority of the pneumonia respiratory disease
that we see in Malawi."

He's been studying pneumococcal disease most of his professional
life. And when it comes to Malawi, he says, vaccine development is
just not that simple.

We know from several studies that the vaccine works. What we don't
fully understand are the limitations of the vaccine.

Unlike other diseases for which there are vaccines, there are many
different strains of pneumococcal disease. The five strains most
prevalent in Europe and America are not those most common here. Which
is why the pneumococcal vaccine currently used in Europe and America
doesnt work so well in Africa.
.

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Michelle Childs
Head of European Affairs
Knowledge Ecology International
michelle.childs@keionline.org