Chemical Engineering Perspectives on Vaccine Production

摘要

Vaccination against infectious diseases has been one of the most effective public health interventions of the past century. Yet, an estimated 2 million children die each year from preventable diseases for which vaccines are available - which translates to a child dying every 20 seconds (1). This explains, in part, a renewed interest in vaccines across the private and public sectors. The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) recently received commitments totaling $4.3 billion from nonprofit organizations and industrial partners to fund work with government institutions, nonprofit groups, and the private biopharmaceutical industry to significantly reduce the cost of existing vaccines and to expand their distribution (2).