To really make a difference in halting the AIDS pandemic, an HIV vaccine "must be demanded by individuals and government authorities," say Robert Hecht (International AIDS Vaccine Initiative) and Chutima Suraratdecha (Program for Appropriate Technology in Health) in a policy paper in PLoS Medicine.
"Reliable estimates of demand for an HIV vaccine," they say "would help in achieving several policy and advocacy objectives." These objectives, they say, include: persuading governments and industry to invest more in research and product development convincing donors to finance vaccine purchases, in advance or at the time of uptake, given the limited ability of governments and individuals in developing countries to pay for a vaccine helping industry to determine the scale of manufacturing facilities to build to ensure adequate production capacity guiding research portfolio management decisions by highlighting how vaccine characteristics may affect demand guiding governments in planning their HIV vaccination programs.
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Citation: Hecht R, Suraratdecha C (2006) Estimating the demand for a preventive HIV vaccine: Why we need to do better. PLoS Med 3(10): e398. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0030398
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PRESS-ONLY PREVIEW OF THE ARTICLE: http://www.plos.org/press/plme-03-10-hecht.pdf
CONTACT:
Robert Hecht
The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative
Public Policy
110 William St.
New York, NY 10038
United States of America
+1 212-847-1052
+1 212-847-1112 (fax)
rhecht@iavi.org
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