Launch of AMC pilot for pneumococcal vaccine

The Geneva, Switzerland-headquartered International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Association has welcomed the public commitment of the governments of Canada, Italy, Norway and the UK to fund the pilot Advance Market Commitment, which is designed to stimulate the development of new pneumococcal vaccines for use in the world's poorest countries.

Harvey Bale, the IFPMA's director general, said: "this latest commitment by governments to help fund the massive effort needed to achieve the health-related Millennium Development Goals is a very positive development." Dr Bale added that, "while the recently-launched International Finance Facility for Immunization (IFFIm [Marketletters passim]) will help fund wider access to the vaccines that are currently available, new vaccines are also needed to provide broader protection than existing ones and to protect against diseases for which there is so far no vaccine, such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis."

The AMC provides the "innovative financial incentive" for research-based drugmakers around the world to invest in "bringing new vaccines from laboratory to the poorest countries that need them," Dr Bale explained.