The WHO dealmakers: Sending vaccine technology to the third world

Empowering countries to make their own vaccines may sound like a herculean task, but it is all in a day’s work for the Technology Transfer Initiative team at the World Health Organization. Many of us may recall our childhood trips to the doctor’s clinic to receive a routine immunization on the arm. These visits – however unpleasant – were important: experts estimate these injections help to prevent two to three million childhood deaths each year. But while vaccines are still the least expensive way of controlling the spread of infectious diseases, with limited distribution channels and the lack of a lucrative market in the developing world, it is more the rule than the exception there for children to die of common childhood conditions such as measles. According to Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), at the 2011 Pacific Health Summit, “a vaccine that is too expensive for the developing...