PATH's president and CEO responds to critique of the advance market commitment published in Human Vaccines

To stimulate the development of new vaccines that low-income countries can afford, the advance market commitment (AMC) requires donors like the GAVI Alliance to commit money to manufacturers in the pre-development stage. This money guarantees a commitment among manufacturers to make low-cost vaccines available in sufficient quantities as they are demanded by developing countries.

“Supply and demand are thus brought into better balance sooner than would have occurred in the absence of this mechanism,” wrote PATH president and CEO Dr. Christopher J. Elias in commentary published in this month’s edition of Human Vaccines. “There is simply no justification for making children in poor countries wait for next generation, more affordable, vaccines for [pneumococcal pneumonia and rotavirus-induced diarrhea] when market-shaping mechanisms such as the AMC can help ensure that access to vaccines is not just a privilege but a right for all children today.”

Dr. Elias’s commentary was written in response to an editorial published in the February edition of Human Vaccines by Donald W. Light, which criticizes the GAVI Alliance’s obligation to the AMC, particularly its decision to sell new global pneumococcal conjugate vaccines at a deep discount.

Posted March 14, 2011.