Vaccine science and commerce: never the twain shall meet?

doi:10.1136/bmj.39563.553715.BE

BMJ 2008;336:974 (3 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.39563.553715.BE

Letters

Global access to vaccines

Vaccine science and commerce: never the twain shall meet?

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Chokshi and Kesselheim suggest some reasons why effective vaccinesare unavailable in poorer countries.¹ The main reason is thatmost wealthy countries demand a solution (vaccine) for infectiousdiseases of public health importance, while poorer countriesdo not—and should they do so, they are largely ignored.This explains the scant attention paid to important issues suchas improving measles and tuberculosis vaccines and the strongfocus on new vaccines irrespective of their desirability andfeasibility in developing countries. What is worse is that manymanufacturers have realised the potential of marketing in developingcountries (large population and variable spending power) andare ruthlessly exploiting the weak decision making systems thereto aggressively promote products that are often not required.

Chokshi and Kesselheim state that "difficulty in disseminatingwell established vaccines casts doubts on our ability to promotewidespread use of new ones,"¹ but the opposite is being witnessedin most . . . [Full text of this article]

Joseph L Mathew, assistant professor (paediatrics)

¹ Advanced Paediatrics Centre, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh 160012, India

jlmathew@rediffmail.com