We need a MERS vaccine, but high costs, regulations make one unlikely

New technologies give vaccine developers a boost in early development, but large-scale testing and production are bogged down by high costs and lengthy trials. Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS, is spreading across the globe, and while a vaccine could be developed, there’s little commercial incentive to make one. The deadly virus was first identified in Saudi Arabia in 2012. Since then, infected people have turned up in Europe, Africa, and Asia. The first cases arrived in the United States this month, beginning with two infected travelers returning from Saudi Arabia. On Saturday, authorities reported the first person-to-person transmission within the U.S., most likely from a face-to-face conversation. While DNA sequencing and synthesis and other biomedical technologies offer ways to quickly devise experimental treatments for sudden disease outbreaks like MERS, the greater challenge is the formidable cost and time needed to test a new vaccine. The need for a MERS vaccine certainly seems urgent....