This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow P3Rs: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when P3Rs are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow E-mail this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My File Cabinet
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Committee, N. V. A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Committee, N. V. A.
Related Collections
Right arrow Infectious Disease & Immunity

PEDIATRICS Vol. 100 No. 6 December 1997, pp. 1015-1020

United States Vaccine Research: A Delicate Fabric of Public and Private Collaboration

Received Mar 18, 1997; accepted May 23, 1997.

National Vaccine Advisory Committee

In the last 20 years, two thirds of all new vaccines provided worldwide have been produced by a US network of independent industrial, governmental, and academic partners engaged in vaccine research and development. Vaccines are complex products and the science of vaccinology is difficult. To achieve the full promise of modern science and technology to prevent and treat disease by immunization, the delicate fabric of America's cooperative and collaborative vaccine research relationships must be sustained and strengthened. The major partners are the federal government; four large companies---two US-headquartered (Wyeth-Lederle Biologics and Vaccines and Merck & Co), two foreign firms (SmithKline Beecham and Pasteur Mérieux Connaught); and academia. Of the $1.4 billion that fund US vaccine research and development annually, 46% comes from vaccine sales, 36% from taxpayers, and 18% from risk capital. Vaccine innovation could be strengthened by improved public and policy maker understanding of the vaccine development network; declarations of partnership; interactive dialog with federal advisory bodies; public forums for government and industry to listen to patients, providers, and researchers; sabbatical assignments between partners; mechanisms to share industries' market research with public immunization programs; continued active industry participation in the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and the National Vaccine Advisory Committee; increased collaboration between industry and the National Institutes of Health for clinical research; harmonization of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices vaccine recommendations and the Food and Drug Administration package inserts; and public policies to foster the partnership's collaboration and robustness. The optimal size and configuration of the US vaccine enterprise should be debated only in the context of a full understanding of how the current system works and its record of effectiveness. These National Vaccine Advisory Committee recommendations are directed at developing public policies to foster and sustain vaccine innovation and ensure the timely introduction and supply of new vaccines needed by this nation and the world.

Key words: vaccine, vaccine research and development, immunization.




This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 PediatricsHome page
N. V. A. Committee
Lessons Learned From a Review of the Development of Selected Vaccines
Pediatrics, October 1, 1999; 104(4): 942 - 950.
[Abstract] [Full Text]