New vaccines could save millions but need funding

Last year, the Gates Foundation committed $10 billion (£6 billion) to fund the distribution of life-saving vaccines to millions of children in the next decade, but there are still challenges to overcome.

According to articles in the June 2011 edition of Health Affairs, funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, despite the investment in the life-saving vaccines, scientists have much to do to ensure they are developed, delivered and supplied.

Product development and financing models have been essential in the effort to increase vaccine development and deliver the treatments to developing countries.

Further research is needed by scientists into potential new vaccines, the source suggested, with this decade offering potential vaccines against diseases such as typhoid, malaria, and dengue.

In the next three to five months, teams of scientists will need investments in order to get the innovative vaccines through a series of clinical laboratory trials and regulatory hurdles.

However, without improvements to supply-chains, the lives of millions of people who need vaccines will be put at risk, independent consultant Judith Kaufmann, Roger Miller of LMI, and independent consultant James Cheyne told the journal.