BIO Ventures for Global Health Commends the Launch of the
First Advance Market Commitment
WASHINGTON, February 9, 2007 – BIO Ventures for Global Health (BVGH) commends today’s launch of the first Advance Market Commitment (AMC), a novel financing mechanism to encourage industry investment in much-needed vaccines for the developing world. Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, Norway, Russia, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are making the commitment to this landmark AMC, which guarantees a $1.5 billion market for new vaccines to prevent deadly respiratory infections in children in developing countries. These funds, which subsidize the purchase of pneumococcal vaccines, create an incentive for manufacturers to develop products for countries that cannot pay for the vaccines.
"AMCs will change the landscape of neglected disease research and development by creating markets for vaccines in developing nations,” said Dr. Christopher D. Earl, President and CEO of BVGH. “Industry initiative is critical to filling the pipeline of new vaccines to treat neglected diseases and the strongest incentives for investment are real, addressable markets.”
In 2006, BVGH met with more than 150 industry executives to identify the features of an AMC most likely to stimulate industry R&D for new vaccines. BVGH distilled this feedback into a major report, released last May. Many of the report’s recommendations were incorporated into the design of today’s initial AMC pilot by experts at the World Bank and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations.
BVGH hopes that today’s historic announcement will signal the first in a series of donor commitments to create markets for the world’s most devastating diseases including tuberculosis and malaria.
“Lack of market opportunities for products that address neglected diseases has made it difficult for some companies to advance innovative medicine and has kept others out of the field entirely,” Dr. Earl said. “To spur industry investment, developing world opportunities must be strong enough to compete with product opportunities in the developed world.”
Under AMCs, which are designed to enhance the value of otherwise insufficient developing world markets, donors commit to guaranteed, preferential prices for a certain number of vaccines sold to the poorest countries. In return, manufacturers agree to lower their prices substantially after an agreed-upon period to ensure long-term access by countries with patients most in need.
For more information on the biotechnology industry and the AMC pilot for pneumococcal disease, please visit www.bvgh.org/resources/amc .
About BVGH:
BIO Ventures for Global Health, a non-profit organization, is harnessing the resources of the biotechnology industry to create new medicines for neglected diseases of the developing world. Our mission is to break down barriers that hinder industry involvement in global health product development and to catalyze industry investment through new market-based solutions. We are supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Biotechnology Industry Organization, and leading companies in the biopharmaceutical industry.
For further information visit the BVGH website at: http://www.bvgh.org.
Contact:
Vanita Gowda
202-478-3587
© 2005 BIO Ventures for Global Health
