$15M granted to six countries to produce vaccines
April 25, 2007 by Grace Ibay
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
In keeping with its promise for more equitable access to pandemic flu vaccines, the World Health Organization awarded $2.5 million each to Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Brazil, Mexico and India for vaccine development.
This is definitely a direct result of Indonesia’s hardballing last February, when it refused to share bird flu samples unless vaccines become more affordable to developing countries.
With the grant, these countries will be on their way to making domestic vaccines much needed by their populace. Currently, there is not enough pandemic vaccine to go around for the world’s population. And though it will take several years for before these countries actually start production, the grant is a big step toward it. Next major move is to make the bird flu vaccines cheaper, more effective and more accessible.
