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Ensuring Access

AIDS vaccines won’t have much of an  impact on the pandemic if, once licensed, they are unaffordable or unavailable to the people who need them the most—namely those in developing countries, where upwards of 95% of new HIV infections occur. 

IAVI requires that the organizations with which it collaborates in vaccine design and development agree to future pricing schemes that take this fact into account.

But affordability isn’t the only problem. Vaccines against deadly diseases have historically taken years to reach the markets of developing countries. So IAVI and its partners have devised strategies to ensure that any vaccine developed through their efforts will be quickly manufactured and distributed in developing countries.

This will require careful planning in several areas:

  • Supply: Because vaccine manufacturing plants can take four years or more to build, plans to produce the millions of doses of AIDS vaccines required each year will have to begin long before the vaccine in question is licensed
  • Licensing: As a rule, most countries require that their own regulatory authorities license each new vaccine offered to their citizens. Beyond that, developing countries often require that the World Health Organization both recommend the use of a novel vaccine, and approve its manufacturer. Advance planning can speed along these processes
  • Adoption: Introducing a new vaccine, especially a relatively expensive or unfamiliar one, can often provoke controversy or suspicion. Vaccine developers and international agencies must be ready to provide governments, especially those of developing countries, with all the information they need to make informed and timely decisions
  • Delivery: A first-generation HIV vaccine will probably be given to adolescents and adults rather than to infants. But few developing countries offer routine vaccinations to teenagers. They will have to develop new ways of reaching this population
  • Affordability: Countries that need a vaccine must have the capacity to pay for it. Any HIV vaccine is probably going to be expensive. Vaccine developers and advocates will have to ensure that whoever brings a vaccine to market is committed to providing it to developing countries at the lowest possible price. Even with such guarantees in place, many countries will need financial assistance to buy AIDS vaccines. Given the global scope and severity of the AIDS crisis, providing that support will need to be a priority of the world’s governments, donor agencies and philanthropies.