How will sponsors avoid being locked into spending $3bn on a vaccine that is not needed?
The technical specification will define which vaccines are eligible for the commitment — and this will include standards for efficacy and safety. More importantly, the sponsors’ commitment is to underwrite purchases of vaccines by developing countries: this protects sponsors by insuring that they only pay out for vaccines that developing countries actually want to buy. How do sponsors know that the commitment will result in more R&D? Both theory and evidence tell us that investment in R&D rises in line with the expected market size. We have seen similar incentives be effective in stimulating industry response, such as through the Orphan Drug Act and recent UK experience with vaccines for meningitis. Most importantly, we see similar incentives leading to the development of vaccines and drugs for affluent markets.