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Lives Lost As Vaccine Programs Face Delays
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All parties involved said it had become evident that two or three years of groundwork is not enough to accelerate a vaccine, and one lesson is that regional studies need to be planned far ahead. "Start earlier," Wecker declared. Charities funded by Gates that are developing vaccines for tuberculosis and malaria are already applying this finding.
It is clear that Glaxo created some delays itself: To hasten a rollout in poor countries, the company first licensed its vaccine in Mexico. But problems with that country's drug regulators slowed the World Health Organization in declaring the vaccine safe and effective for global use -- a crucial step.
Julian Lob-Levyt, executive secretary of GAVI, emphasized the experimental nature of the rotavirus and pneumococcal acceleration programs that his group created. "We need to be open and self-critical and see how we can move faster," he said.
Merck and Glaxo are expected to enter U.S. and European markets with rotavirus vaccines as early as next year. Merck recently cut a deal with the Rotavirus Vaccine Program to pursue research in poor countries, but the studies will not begin until late next year. People in the field estimated that it will be at least three to five years before the new vaccines begin to reach the children who need them most.
"It was the industry that was being chastised a decade ago," said Steven Drew, a vice president at Glaxo. "We've done our bit, and the problem is still not fixed."
Some public-health doctors, although regretting that the original goal will not be met, urged a sense of perspective, noting that the vaccine might reach poor children just a few years after it reaches those in rich countries. "If we can cut the lag time from 30 years to a decade or less, that's 20 years of lives saved," said Nils Daulaire, president of the Global Health Council, an advocacy group in White River Junction, Vt.
The sentiment, however valid, is a measure of the degree to which the public-health world has become accustomed to death on a mass scale.
If the rotavirus and pneumonia vaccines take three more years to reach poor countries, 3.7 million children will have died of the diseases by then. That is 3,397 children for every day's delay.
