Miracle or menace? : biotechnology and the third world / by Robert Walgate.

  • Walgate, Robert
Date:
[1990]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Credit: Miracle or menace? : biotechnology and the third world / by Robert Walgate. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Chapter 6: Biotechnology and human health Funding vaccine research But vaccine development costs are high, and success is not always assured. Costs rise tenfold at each stage from research to development and from development to application. After identifying an effective immunising agent in animal and preliminary human trials, it will cost US$20-30 million and 7-10 years of development to arrive at a vaccine usable by ordinary paramedics in the field [5]. Private companies are thus reluctant to get into the work, as it would seem to be difficult to get a return at the prices that developing countries — or WHO — could afford. For example, the US biotechnology company Genentech had agreed to develop a promising New York University vaccine against the sporozoite stage of the malaria parasite; but it backed out when it realised the project would not be profitable [6]. Similarly, the small British biotechnology agency. Rural Investment Overseas Ltd, also considered developing vaccines against tropical diseases in the Philippines, in collaboration with the BIOTECH group of Los Banos University. However, the project was abandoned because the market size was too small. Other plans are afoot, however, to help developers cover the costs of development work through direct grants from outside donors (such as the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP). The vaccine producers would then sell the vaccine to WHO at production cost only. These ideas are being pressed strongly by Anthony Robbins, Professor of Public Health at the Boston University School of Medicine, and by Phyllis Freeman, Chairman of the Law Center of the College of Public and Community Services at the University of Massachusetts, also in Boston [7].
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