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The Ebola Vaccine, Latrogenic Injuries, and Legal Liability
Making vaccines is a risky, oftentimes unenviable business. Vaccines are administered to healthy people who tend to be unforgiving if an adverse side effect or injury subsequently develops. The risk of being sued, even when a vaccine supplier follows best practices, combined with growing anti-vaccination sentiment, creates a climate that is not conducive to vaccine innovation. The dissuasive effect of litigation risk and legal liability is heightened both for vaccines aimed at diseases of poor countries, for which the financial inducements are weak anyway [1,2], and vaccines for public health emergencies, which are developed in accelerated clinical trials that may lack the statistical power or detailed follow-up necessary to detect rare adverse effects. Yet, as the West African Ebola outbreak demonstrates, the world can ill afford not to have vaccines against diseases of poverty in emergency situations [1]. Several reasons exist for not having a vaccine available, relating to the biology of the virus and the epidemiological challenges pertaining to evaluating a vaccine for a rare disease. However, financial incentives and disincentives for vaccine manufactures to invest in vaccine trials for rare diseases in resource-poor countries also need to be considered. We argue that, as one part of a comprehensive plan to promote vaccine development, there needs to be a plan to lessen the risks of litigation and liability to remove disincentives for these vaccines to be developed and later deployed. As others point out, no satisfactory plan now exists [3].
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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In India, IBM’s Watson Will Aid Cancer Care Where Doctors Are Scarce
IBM IBM +0.00% and a large hospital system in India have partnered to diagnose and treat cancer care in a country of 1.2 billion residents who often cannot access oncologists, leaving their diseases undetected and untreated.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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India’s “Health Camps”: The Drug Rep Will See You Now
Pharmaceutical sales representatives are screening people in India in return for prescriptions for their products while calling it corporate social responsibility. Frederik Joelving investigates.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
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The All-In-One Solution to Sexual Health Is On Its Way
The current sexual and reproductive prevention methods have significantly improved the health and well-being of women and their families. But this is not enough. Worldwide each year there are still 85 million unplanned pregnancies, 21.6 million unsafe abortions, and nearly 300 000 maternal deaths from complications related to pregnancy and birth.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Can This Necklace Help More Kids Get Vaccinated?
It looks like a normal necklace. Just a small, clear plastic droplet dangling from a thick black thread.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- vaccines
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India’s Pharma Sector Pips Global Growth
The global pharma industry is set to grow at an annual rate of 5% between 2015 and 2020 to cross $1.3 trillion by 2020 while the Indian market is expected to grow over 15% annually in this period, according to a study by UBM India, the Indian arm of London-based media and events company.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
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On World AIDS Day, Condom Maker Calls for Safe-Sex Emoji
Time for an official safe-sex emoji?
- Categories
- Health Care
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Anti-TB Fight Has Big Return on Investment, Says Health Minister
Investing in the fight against tuberculosis (TB) offers potentially huge future savings, with an estimated return of $85 for every dollar spent.
- Categories
- Health Care, Investing
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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