Combining health and social protection measures to reach the ultra ...

Innovation
some of this risk might be to match private sector venture
capital investments in vaccine R&D for certain diseases with
public sector funds or to provide grants to venture capital
firms that fill a certain fraction of their portfolio with
investments in these areas.
These ideas merit further investigation, although it is not
clear from initial consultations with venture fund managers
that subsidies of this kind would substantially change the
risk/reward calculations of potential investors. Moreover,
venture capitalists were skeptical of the idea of a venture
fund that blended AIDS/TB/malaria vaccine projects with
other biotech activities 15 . This is because venture investors
would prefer that all projects in a fund be evaluated relative
to the same objectives (i.e., financial returns or contribution
to a social goal), rather than by different and potentially
incompatible criteria.
If successful, venture capital subsidy or matching schemes
would have the potential to bring private sector capital as
well as private sector project evaluation and management
expertise to early-stage vaccine R&D.
Conclusions
Global health has moved to centre stage in recent years, as
health care is increasingly recognized as a critical part of
efforts to reduce poverty and improve the quality of life of
billions of people, and as a powerful way to harness science
and technology to the pursuit of social goals.
There has been substantial innovation in global health
financing recently, especially in creating new sources,
intermediaries and financial modalities for the purchase of
existing drugs and vaccines and the delivery of health
services. Although there has been less change in the funding
of health R&D, the establishment of PDPs and the launch of
a vaccine AMC are important developments.
Despite these advances, there are still significant gaps and
deficiencies in vaccine R&D financing, including insufficient
volume, focus, flexibility and predictability. In this paper we
begin to develop a framework for characterizing and
assessing the strengths and limitations of financing
mechanisms for vaccine R&D and propose some new
financing approaches that might address the deficiencies that
we have identified. ❏
Robert Hecht is the Head of Policy Research and Advocacy at
the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. In that capacity, he
oversees a programme of analysis and outreach that aims to
accelerate the scientific search for an AIDS vaccine and ensure
rapid access to a vaccine which can help to end the global
pandemic. He joined IAVI in 2004 after a 20-year tenure at the
World Bank, where his last position was as Director and Sector
Manager of the Bank’s Central Unit for Health, Nutrition and
Population, with oversight for global strategies, knowledge,
technical services and partnerships. His other positions at the
Bank included Chief of Operations for the World Bank’s Human
Development Network, Principal Economist in the Latin America
region, and member of the core team and a principal author of the
1993 World Development Report, Investing in Health. From 1987
to 1996, Dr Hecht was responsible for a number of World Bank
sponsored studies and projects in health in Africa and Latin
America, most notably in Zimbabwe and Argentina.
He also served as an Associate Director of the Joint United
Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) from 1998 to 2001,
where he managed technical units based in South Africa, Côte
d'Ivoire and Thailand, as well as in Geneva.
Dr Hecht is the author of more than 30 articles and other
publications. He received his undergraduate degree from Yale and
his doctorate from Cambridge University.
Paul A Wilson has recently joined the International AIDS
Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) as Director of Policy Research. He comes
to IAVI from Columbia University, where he is an assistant
professor in the Mailman School of Public Health. At Columbia Dr
Wilson worked on a range of topics in AIDS policy, including
strategies for meeting the Millennium Development Goal on AIDS,
evaluation of programmes for orphans, and financing of AIDS
vaccine development. He is the lead author of the UN Millennium
Project’s report Combating AIDS in the Developing World.
Dr Wilson spent much of his career as a scientist. Before
moving to Columbia to work on global health policy, he was an
Assistant Professor of Cell Biology at the Cornell Medical College.
Dr Wilson holds a PhD in Zoology from the University of California
at Berkeley, an MSc degree in Economics from the London School
of Economics and an undergraduate degree in Physics from
Princeton University.
092 ✜ Global Forum Update on Research for Health Volume 4