ReviewDeveloping Countries Vaccine Manufacturers Network: Doing good by making high-quality vaccines affordable for all☆
Highlights
► DCVMN is a unique public and private international alliance changing the global vaccination landscape. ► The increased number of manufacturers resulted in a five-to-six fold increase in pentavalent doses supplied to UNICEF. ► A remarkable achievement is the development of a group A meningococcal meningitis conjugate vaccine for Africa. ► Another innovation is the development and approval of the world's first hepatitis E vaccine. ► Over the past decade, DCVMN members have produced innovative, high-quality, and affordable vaccines for all.
Introduction
The Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturers Network (DCVMN) is a unique model of an international alliance. It assembles public and private organizations to work toward a common goal of manufacturing and supplying high-quality vaccines at affordable prices to protect people around the world from known and emerging infectious diseases. Notably, the network is a voluntary public health-driven alliance of manufacturers with facilities established in developing countries and owned in majority by stakeholders in those countries [1], [2]. It does not include multinational companies with manufacturing facilities in developing countries, or their subsidiaries.
Networking is the simplest model of partnership, where organizations come together regularly to share best practices and discuss areas of commonality. The aim is to enhance the organizations’ abilities to take up opportunities, such as co-development of products or technology transfer, or to deliver specific services or products.
The network is steadily growing. As of September 2012, it has 37 members in 14 countries in Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region (Fig. 1). Together, these manufacturers employ more than 42,000 skilled workers, with about 70% in the Asia-Pacific region, 15% in the Middle East and Africa, and 15% in Latin America. This employment contributes to the welfare and health of families and communities and the success of national economies. The vaccine industry not only offers the prospect of long-term professional careers and skills development for individuals but also contributes actively to sustainable development and empowerment of emerging economies.
The network strengthens the capacity of manufacturers to supply high-quality vaccines by facilitating information sharing and workshops, encouraging technology transfer initiatives and innovative research, and educating the public about the availability of safe and effective vaccines from developing-country manufacturers. Since the network was established in 2000 [1], member companies have helped to significantly increase access to high-quality vaccines, at affordable prices, for people who need them most, in the poorest countries of the world.
Collectively, network members have the technologies, know-how, and capacity to produce more than 40 vaccines types. They have contributed more than 30 vaccines in various presentations that have been prequalified by the World Health Organization (WHO) for immunization programmes around the world (Fig. 2). Furthermore, more than 45 products are in the pipeline. DCVMN members, for example, will soon likely launch the next rotavirus vaccine and the next human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine to become available globally. Also, the first prequalified Japanese encephalitis vaccine may become available from DCVMN members for global procurement in 2013.DCVMN members have played a critical role in increasing global access to vaccines, which now prevent an estimated 2.5 million deaths each year, according to WHO. A key success story has been a global increase in measles vaccination rates, which contributed to a 74% percent drop in measles deaths from 2000 to 2010 [3].
Section snippets
Increasing access to pentavalent vaccines
Innovative pentavalent vaccines, introduced with support of the GAVI Alliance (www.gavialliance.org), enable use of one product to immunize children against five diseases—diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B, and Haemophilus influenzae type b. This reduces the number of injections a child needs to receive and the number of visits it takes to get them, therefore increasing the likelihood that a child will receive all vaccines necessary for a healthy childhood. Using a pentavalent vaccine
DCVMN commitment to quality: a solid basis for safety and efficacy of vaccines
Importantly, the ability to have a great vaccine portfolio, large manufacturing capacity, innovation, and technology transfer initiatives depends ultimately on the quality of vaccines supplied by manufacturers. Unlike other medical interventions, vaccines are given to healthy people, and people are far less willing to tolerate vaccines’ adverse effects. Vaccines of high quality will have the safety profile and efficacy levels needed to reduce the incidence of infectious diseases. Thus, vaccine
Conclusion and outlook into the new decade of vaccines: opportunities and challenges
Over the past decade, developing-country vaccine manufacturers have built a successful track record of producing innovative, high-quality, and affordable vaccines, changing the landscape of vaccination globally. These manufacturers have played a crucial role in increasing access to vaccines toward universal use. Through strategic alliances and technology transfer initiatives, they have been able to supply combination vaccines to children, make large areas of the world polio-free, fight regional
Conflict of interest
The authors are employees of the respective indicated organizations, and have no conflict of interest to declare.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Dr. Jan Hendricks, Mr. Rajinder K. Suri, and Mr. Hong Thai for comments and suggestions to this manuscript. We thank Mr. Jack Hunsicker for help with editing.
References (28)
- et al.
The developing countries vaccine manufacturers’ network (DCVMN) is a critical constituency to ensure access to vaccines in developing countries
Vaccine
(2008) - et al.
Efficacy and safety of a recombinant hepatitis E vaccine in healthy adults: a large-scale, randomised, double-blind placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial
Lancet
(2010) - et al.
Bordetella pertussis monophosphoryl lipid A as adjuvant for inactivated split virion influenza vaccine in mice
Vaccine
(2009) - et al.
A phase I randomized, double-blind, controlled trial of 2009 influenza A (H1N1) inactivated monovalent vaccines with different adjuvant systems
Vaccine
(2011) - et al.
Inactivated polio vaccine development for technology transfer using attenuated Sabin poliovirus strains to shift from Salk-IPV to Sabin-IPV
Vaccine
(2011) - et al.
An international technology platform for influenza vaccines
Vaccine
(2011) - et al.
Influenza vaccine production for Brazil: a classic example of successful North-South bilateral technology transfer
Vaccine
(2011) - et al.
Emerging markets & emerging needs: developing countries vaccine manufacturers’ perspective & its current status
Biologicals
(2009) - et al.
Developing Country Vaccine Manufacturers Network (DCVMN), 26–27 April 2001, Bandung, Indonesia
Vaccine
(2001) - Measles, Key facts, Fact sheet No. 286, April 2012. Available at...
A multicenter, prospective, open-label, non-comparative study to evaluate the immunogenicity and tolerance of a new, fully liquid pentavalent vaccine (DTwP-HepB-Hib vaccine)
Hum Vaccin
Cited by (27)
Sustainable vaccine manufacturing in low- and middle-Income countries
2022, VaccineCitation Excerpt :A fundamental issue contributing to the burden of infectious diseases is that multi-national corporations (MNCs), which dominate the industry’s market share, often lack the incentives to develop, produce and supply vaccines for LMICs [7,9]. This misalignment has fueled the growth of DCVMs in producing affordable vaccines in large volumes for domestic and global supply [10]. Furthermore, DCVMs have increasingly been engaged in developing innovative vaccines that improve health outcomes in LMICs [11].
Time to boost COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing: The need for intellectual property waiver by big pharma
2021, Ethics, Medicine and Public HealthSupply and delivery of vaccines for global health
2021, Current Opinion in ImmunologyCitation Excerpt :The DCVM becomes responsible for the manufacturing and clinical development, perhaps supplemented by the funding partners, followed by regulatory approval for licensure and WHO prequalification (PQ). The Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturers Network (DCVMN) was established in 2000 with the mission to increase the availability and affordability of quality vaccines to protect against known and emerging infectious diseases [35]. About 70% of the global EPI vaccine supplies and about 75% procured by UN agencies are produced by DCVMN [36].
Roadmap for strengthening the vaccine supply chain in emerging countries: Manufacturers' perspectives
2020, Vaccine: XCitation Excerpt :While up-front investments (subsidies) are one response, this should be weighed against manufacturers' ability and capacity to adapt and adopt new technology [13]. Technology transfers constitute another option to support capacity building for manufacturers with scientific knowledge facilitating the transfer process [14]. There are two significant constraints.
Emerging vaccine manufacturers are innovating for the next decade
2020, Vaccine: XCitation Excerpt :Notable, 41 vaccine projects are currently in Phase III clinical trials of which two are considered novel. This marks a significant increase from similar data from 2011 [30], which indicated members had 11 vaccines in late development stage. This illustrates DCVMs growing capacity and willingness to effectively advance their vaccine clinical development.
Vaccine procurement in the Middle East and North Africa region: Challenges and ways of improving program efficiency and fiscal space
2019, VaccineCitation Excerpt :Multinational suppliers now dominate the market for only a few vaccines such as hexavalent vaccine, PCV, and HPV. Emerging manufacturers supply most of the other vaccines, adopting a low price/high volume approach [11]. A few GCC countries, which had previously purchased almost entirely from multinational manufacturers, are now starting to procure some vaccines from emerging manufacturers (Fig. 3).
- ☆
This report summarizes the collective views of an international group of experts and does not necessarily represent the decisions or the stated policy of any institution or corporation.
- 1
Tel.: +55 11 3726 3790; fax: +55 11 3726 1505.
- 2
Tel.: +91 040 30213999; fax: +91 040 27675003.
- 3
Tel.: +27 21 511 2266; fax: +27 21 511 3962.
- 4
Tel.: +86 592 6536555; fax: +86 592 6536567.
- 5
Tel.: +62 22 2033755; fax: +62 22 2041306.
- 6
Tel.: +91 20 2699 3900; fax: +91 20 2699 3945.
- 7
Tel.: +91 40 2348 0567; fax: +91 40 2348 0560.
- 8
Tel: +55 21 3882 7200; fax: +5521 3882 7176.