(NEW CANAAN, CT)—A scientist on the verge of a major laboratory eakthrough in creating a vaccine against a parasite that has devastated populations in India and China goes looking for funding to continue his work—but finds “zero interest” from pharmaceutical companies, large and small. The Sabin Vaccine Institute, for years acutely aware of the difficulty in creating and introducing lifesaving vaccines in emerging economies, developed directly from this researcher’s experience the colloquium and book Vaccines For Emerging Economies: Who Will Pay?

This new publication looks at some of the reasons for this “zero interest” and how, in the light of global security and continued economic growth, it is essential that attitudes toward vaccines against diseases including HIV, malaria and tuberculosis change.

Vaccines For Developing Economies: Who Will Pay? reports from the leading edge of global public health planning. Selectively invited leaders from science, industry, government and global organizations gathered at the 6th Annual Albert B. Sabin Vaccine Institute Colloquium at Cold Spring Harbor. Their solutions, while not conclusive, map out the territory of international policy, science and economics that lies ahead. The meeting has since spawned a presidential policy initiative.

Rather than simply publish a collection of reports and papers from the colloquium, editor William Muraskin, PhD, crafts a compelling narrative out of the original points of debate and dissension at the 1999 conference and adds recent interviews for further insights. Voices from the colloquium—and some that went unheard there—pointedly and unsparingly hammer out the political, economic, and social challenges of saving human lives in developing countries through vaccines.

The resulting forward-looking report is valuable to those in every field who need to keep up with new technology, the new economy, emerging policy issues and security threats and new government administrations.

Issues covered include:

• The strong shift in policy organizations from viewing infectious diseases as health and humanitarian issues to realizing their national security implications
• “Push” vs. “pull” approaches to funding and the role of tax breaks, long-term funds and philanthropy
• Dilemmas for the pharmaceutical industry: how it can remain a profitable and global player and how mergers and consolidation affect development of new products
• The role of intellectual property rights and international law in developing new vaccines and using existing ones
• The chilling effect on industry of changing public perceptions about vaccines
• Case studies of orphan diseases
• Reports and perspective from organizations such as the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, the Children’s Vaccine Initiative, the Gates Foundation, the World Bank, the National Security Council, the White House Office of Science and Technology and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

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“The issues raised have become more pressing and urgent as the international commitment to immunization and new vaccine introduction has grown in the last couple of years,” says Sabin Vaccine Institute Chairman H.R. Shepherd.

The insights are typical of those that arise from the annual Cold Spring Harbor colloquia. The Sabin Vaccine Institute invites from disparate field leaders who otherwise might not encounter one another or be able to exchange information and views freely.

The institute, a think tank and advocacy organization founded in 1993 to pursue oral polio-vaccine pioneer Albert B. Sabin’s vision of a world protected from disease by vaccines, also sponsors an annual cancer vaccine colloquium and generates advocacy, funding and recognition for those in the vaccine field. For copies of the report ($20) or for more information on the Institute, contact David Bedell at sabin@sabin.org.