The Novartis Vaccines Institute for Global Health: a new initiative for developing vaccines for neglected diseases in developing countries

In July last year, at the time the first issue of the Journal of Infection in Developing Countries was going to press, a group of infectious disease experts met in Siena, Italy, to consider the direction of another important new initiative in the fight against infectious diseases in developing countries: the Novartis Vaccines Institute for Global Health (NVGH).The NVGH was created last year (2007) with the not-for-profit mission to develop effective and affordable vaccines for neglected infectious diseases in developing countries. It is a unique concept: an institute created by a large vaccine manufacturer to enable the knowledge and resources within the company to be used to makevaccines that are desperately needed in the developing world, but would not be profitable enough to attract the substantial investment required from commercial sources. To achieve its mission, NVGH will work closely with researchers in developed and developing countries, with public and private funding organizations, and with vaccine manufacturers, especially vaccine manufacturers in developing countries.The NVGH is now functional with core staff hired, laboratories commissioned, and the first project started. It celebrated its opening in a ceremony and symposium on 22 February 2008. At the symposium, the background and plans for NVGH were presented with talks by Nobel Prize Laureate, Prof. Rolf Zinkernagel on the nature of immunity; Prof. Ogobara Doumbo (University of Bamako, Mali), on the need for vaccines for Africa; Dr. Sam Kariuki, on the epidemiology of drug resistant nontyphoidal salmonella; Prof. Peter Hotez, on combination vaccine for hookworm and Schistosomiasis; Dr. Roger Glass, on vaccines for rotavirus in developing countries; Prof. Gerd Pluschke, on vaccine for Buruli ulcer; and Prof. Marshall Lightowlers, on vaccine for neurocysticercosis.In addition to the presentations on the scientific and clinical rational for these vaccines, there were two important talks on how vaccines may be financed. Cardinal Martino described the International Finance Facility for Immunization, and Mr. Monticelli explained the Advanced Market Commitment Scheme for developing and purchasing vaccines for developing countries.These talks highlighted the two key areas in vaccine development that NVGH will address.The first is the technical challenge of taking a vaccine from a laboratory concept to a proof of principle in humans. For many neglected diseases, years of patient research have already identified likely candidates for vaccine development. Epidemiologist and clinical researchers hav