International Business Times: Zika Vaccine: Why Developing One Will Take Years In A Skewed System
“…[T]he world of vaccine development has grown vastly more complicated, to a point where critics describe it as failing to meet the needs of public health in a timely fashion. Nowhere has this gap become more apparent than in the face of emerging threats like the Zika virus, a vaccine for which researchers have warned could take up to a decade to bring to market. … ‘The model is flawed,’ Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas and director of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, said of vaccine development by large companies. ‘It’s only done in response to crisis situations.’ … ‘The problem with the system right now is that it’s relying on monopolies of companies who want to recoup research and development costs with sales,’ said Josh Michaud, an associate director on the global health policy team at the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation…” (Whitman, 2/10).