Two papers published on September 13 in PLoS Medicine raise concerns about whether world leaders are getting good advice on how best to fund the development and delivery of new vaccines.
Donald Light, Professor of comparative health care systems at the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey, discusses the report Making Markets for Vaccines produced by the Centre for Global Development and the Gates Foundation Working Group for Making Markets for Vaccines. Professor Light was a member of the CGD/Gates Foundation "Pull" Mechanisms Working Group for the report but finding the report impractical, he declined to endorse it. For this, he and others who dissented were de-listed as members in the report.
In his essay, Professor Light explains why he thinks the report's recommendations give poor advice to donor nations such as the United States and the U.K. He believes that they favor large pharmaceutical firms, delay saving lives, spend donations wastefully, and reward secrecy rather than sharing.