Project Syndicate: Vaccines Versus Superbugs
Jim O’Neill, commercial secretary to the U.K. Treasury, honorary professor of economics at Manchester University, visiting research fellow at Bruegel, and chair of the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance.

“…[W]e are not moving fast enough to develop the types of vaccines that could be used to prevent antimicrobial resistance. … Maximizing the potential of vaccines to fight antimicrobial resistance … requires the wider application of existing vaccines in humans and animals. But it also entails developing new vaccines, which, in the short-term, could be kick-started by a $2 billion Global Innovation Fund for early-stage research in vaccines and other viable alternatives to antibiotics. And in areas where research and development is not an attractive proposition, developers must be provided an opportunity to make a return from useful products. … Vaccines hold the potential to have a huge impact on drug resistance, if they are included as part of a broad series of interventions to combat the problem. Fortunately, awareness of this challenge is starting to take root. … The momentum now gathering in the public and private sectors is creating an opportunity that must not be missed” (2/11).