Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Pneumococcal vaccine
Pneumococcal vaccines are vaccines against the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae. Their use can prevent some cases of pneumonia, meningitis, and sepsis. There are two types of pneumococcal vaccines: conjugate vaccines and polysaccharide vaccines. They are given by injection either into a muscle or just under the skin.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends the use of the conjugate vaccine in the routine immunizations given to children. This includes those with HIV/AIDS. The recommended three or four doses are between 71 and 93% effective at preventing severe pneumococcal disease. The polysaccharide vaccines, while effective in healthy adults, are not effective in children less than two years old or those with poor immune function.
These vaccines are generally safe. With the conjugate vaccine about 10% of babies develop redness at the site of injection, fever, or change in sleep. Severe allergies are very rare.
Whole-cell vaccinations were developed alongside characterisation of the subtypes of pneumococcus from the early 1900s. The first polysaccharide vaccine (tetravalent) was developed in 1945. The current 23-valent polysaccharide vaccine was developed in the 1980s. The first conjugate vaccine (heptavalent) reached market in 2000. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines.
Different pneumococcal vaccines provide protection against different serotypes. In particular, their coverage of antibiotic‐resistant serotypes varies. Early vaccines did not cover certain serotypes which later became a major contributor to antibiotic‐resistant infections. Subsequent vaccines are designed to address this gap.
Pneumococcal vaccines Accelerated Development and Introduction Plan (PneumoADIP) is a program to accelerate the evaluation and access to new pneumococcal vaccines in the developing world. PneumoADIP is funded by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI). Thirty GAVI countries have expressed interest in participating by 2010. PneumoADIP aims to save 5.4 million children by 2030.
A pilot Advance Market Commitment (AMC) to develop a vaccine against pneumococcus was launched by GAVI in June 2009 as a strategy to address two of the major policy challenges to vaccine introduction: a lack of affordable vaccines on the market, and insufficient commercial incentives to develop vaccines for diseases concentrated in developing countries. Under the terms of an AMC, donors make a legally binding guarantee that, if a future vaccine is developed against a particular disease, they will purchase a predetermined amount at an agreed-upon price. The guarantee is linked to safety and efficacy standards that the vaccine must meet and is structured in a way to allow several firms to compete to develop and produce the best possible new product. AMCs reduce risk to donor governments by eliminating the need to fund individual research and development projects that may never produce a vaccine. If no company produces a vaccine that meets the predetermined standards, governments (and thus their taxpayers) spend nothing. For the bio-pharmaceutical industry, AMCs create a guaranteed market, with a promise of returns that would not normally exist. For developing countries, AMCs provide funding to ensure that those vaccines will be affordable once they have been developed. It is estimated that the pneumococcal AMC could prevent more than 1.5 million childhood deaths by 2020.[independent source needed]
Doctors Without Borders has criticized GAVI's pneumococcal AMC for not encouraging innovation, discouraging competition from new market entrants, and raising vaccine costs. They said that it had allowed Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline to maintain a duopoly while making it more difficult for the Serum Institute of India to sell their cheaper vaccine. The duopoly allowed price discrimination; somewhat higher prices for GAVI, and unaffordable prices (about ten time the GAVI price) for middle-income countries too rich for GAVI aid. The pneumococcal program (unlike previous market-shaping programs from GAVI[independent source needed]) did not include any mechanism for increasing competition.
Hub AI
Pneumococcal vaccine AI simulator
(@Pneumococcal vaccine_simulator)
Pneumococcal vaccine
Pneumococcal vaccines are vaccines against the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae. Their use can prevent some cases of pneumonia, meningitis, and sepsis. There are two types of pneumococcal vaccines: conjugate vaccines and polysaccharide vaccines. They are given by injection either into a muscle or just under the skin.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends the use of the conjugate vaccine in the routine immunizations given to children. This includes those with HIV/AIDS. The recommended three or four doses are between 71 and 93% effective at preventing severe pneumococcal disease. The polysaccharide vaccines, while effective in healthy adults, are not effective in children less than two years old or those with poor immune function.
These vaccines are generally safe. With the conjugate vaccine about 10% of babies develop redness at the site of injection, fever, or change in sleep. Severe allergies are very rare.
Whole-cell vaccinations were developed alongside characterisation of the subtypes of pneumococcus from the early 1900s. The first polysaccharide vaccine (tetravalent) was developed in 1945. The current 23-valent polysaccharide vaccine was developed in the 1980s. The first conjugate vaccine (heptavalent) reached market in 2000. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines.
Different pneumococcal vaccines provide protection against different serotypes. In particular, their coverage of antibiotic‐resistant serotypes varies. Early vaccines did not cover certain serotypes which later became a major contributor to antibiotic‐resistant infections. Subsequent vaccines are designed to address this gap.
Pneumococcal vaccines Accelerated Development and Introduction Plan (PneumoADIP) is a program to accelerate the evaluation and access to new pneumococcal vaccines in the developing world. PneumoADIP is funded by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI). Thirty GAVI countries have expressed interest in participating by 2010. PneumoADIP aims to save 5.4 million children by 2030.
A pilot Advance Market Commitment (AMC) to develop a vaccine against pneumococcus was launched by GAVI in June 2009 as a strategy to address two of the major policy challenges to vaccine introduction: a lack of affordable vaccines on the market, and insufficient commercial incentives to develop vaccines for diseases concentrated in developing countries. Under the terms of an AMC, donors make a legally binding guarantee that, if a future vaccine is developed against a particular disease, they will purchase a predetermined amount at an agreed-upon price. The guarantee is linked to safety and efficacy standards that the vaccine must meet and is structured in a way to allow several firms to compete to develop and produce the best possible new product. AMCs reduce risk to donor governments by eliminating the need to fund individual research and development projects that may never produce a vaccine. If no company produces a vaccine that meets the predetermined standards, governments (and thus their taxpayers) spend nothing. For the bio-pharmaceutical industry, AMCs create a guaranteed market, with a promise of returns that would not normally exist. For developing countries, AMCs provide funding to ensure that those vaccines will be affordable once they have been developed. It is estimated that the pneumococcal AMC could prevent more than 1.5 million childhood deaths by 2020.[independent source needed]
Doctors Without Borders has criticized GAVI's pneumococcal AMC for not encouraging innovation, discouraging competition from new market entrants, and raising vaccine costs. They said that it had allowed Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline to maintain a duopoly while making it more difficult for the Serum Institute of India to sell their cheaper vaccine. The duopoly allowed price discrimination; somewhat higher prices for GAVI, and unaffordable prices (about ten time the GAVI price) for middle-income countries too rich for GAVI aid. The pneumococcal program (unlike previous market-shaping programs from GAVI[independent source needed]) did not include any mechanism for increasing competition.