[Ip-health] MSF on the launch of pneumococcal AMC: is it what the doctor ordered?

[James ARKINSTALL]

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Hello,=0D
For press contacts, please see the foot of this message.=0D
For more information on advance market commitments, please visit=0D
http://www.msfaccess.org/main/medical-innovation/advance-market-commitments=
/=0D
Thanks,=0D
James=0D
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New Deal To Boost Production Of Life-Saving Vaccines:=0D
What The Doctor Ordered?=0D
=0D
Geneva/Roma 12 June 2009 =E2=80=93 A number of governments and GAVI Allianc=
e have=0D
officially committed today to pay a set price for significant quantities=0D
of pneumococcal vaccines in a bid to speed up its roll-out in developing=0D
countries, with the future of the scheme now depending on pharmaceutical=0D
companies choosing to participate. International medical humanitarian=0D
organisation M=C3=A9decins Sans Fronti=C3=A8res (MSF) warns that while the =
objective=0D
is laudable, the mechanism leaves significant challenges still unmet.=0D
=0D
By contributing to the pneumococcal vaccine advance market commitment=0D
(pneumo-AMC) led by GAVI Alliance, donors aim to reduce the time lag=0D
between the release of a vaccine in wealthy countries and its roll-out in=
=0D
developing countries. Pneumococcal bacteria cause severe pneumonia and=0D
meningitis, killing between 700,000 and one million children each year.=0D
More than 90 percent of these deaths occur in developing countries.=0D
=0D
=E2=80=9CIf the AMC works, it could get new vaccines to the poorest countri=
es much=0D
faster,=E2=80=9D says Dr. Tido von Schoen-Angerer, Director of the MSF Camp=
aign=0D
for Access to Essential Medicines. =E2=80=9CThe previous generation of=0D
pneumo-vaccine has been on the market since 2000 but is only reaching=0D
children in Africa this year, so there really was an urgent need for=0D
change.=E2=80=9D=0D
=0D
If companies do chose to collaborate in the scheme, the AMC would work by=
=0D
guaranteeing a set price of US$7 per dose in return for the manufacturers=
=0D
committing to producing sufficient quantities.=0D
=E2=80=9CBut it is still impossible to say whether the pneumo-AMC will leav=
e room=0D
for developing country suppliers, or whether the US$1.5 billion reward=0D
will all be swept up by the big players like GlaxoSmithKline and Wyeth,=E2=
=80=9D=0D
says Laurent Gadot, health economist with the MSF Campaign for Access to=0D
Essential Medicines. =E2=80=9CAnd it=E2=80=99s only if developing country m=
anufacturers=0D
enter the market that we can expect prices to come down to more affordable=
=0D
levels in the future.=E2=80=9D=0D
=0D
MSF is also concerned that although the AMC will boost access to the=0D
vaccine in the developing world, many developing countries are de facto=0D
excluded from the deal.=0D
=0D
=E2=80=9CThe US$7 per dose price is limited to the poorest countries.  Chil=
dren in=0D
other developing countries like in Latin America will likely still go=0D
without the new vaccine,=E2=80=9D says Dr. von Schoen-Angerer.=0D
=0D
We need more R&D into vaccines to answer the needs of poor countries. But=
=0D
MSF does not think that an AMC, although it could create the conditions=0D
for the scaling up of production capacity, could trigger that innovation.=
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=0D
=E2=80=9CThere has been a lot of talk about AMCs as a tool to stimulate med=
ical=0D
innovation.  But this pneumo-AMC was not about innovation =E2=80=93 only ab=
out=0D
creating incentives for increasing the production of a vaccine that was=0D
coming to the market anyway,=E2=80=9D said Dr. von Schoen-Angerer.  =E2=80=
=9CAMCs cannot=0D
be touted as the answer to the lack of medical R&D into neglected=0D
diseases, and countries need to be very clear on this point before=0D
embarking on similar AMCs in the future.=E2=80=9D=0D
=0D
Contributors to the AMC are Italy (US$635 million), the UK (US$485m),=0D
Canada (US$200m), Russia (US$80m), Norway and the Gates Foundation (US$50m=
=0D
each).=0D
=0D
For more information, please contact: Guillaume Bonnet, MSF  +41 79 203 13=
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02=0D
=0D
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