Keeping vaccines as affordable as generic medicines: a matter of life and death

摘要

Generic medicines - budget versions of brand-name drugs - are often quite literally a lifesaver because they are affordable. Vaccines are just as critical, protecting against infectious diseases such measles and polio, yet we don't have cheap generics for vaccines. This is because the biological nature of vaccines means the processes of manufacture, licensing and regulation are vastly different to medicines, leading to high fixed costs in development.