US pharmaceutical giant Merck and British research charity Wellcome Trust on Thursday announced a joint venture to develop "affordable" vaccines for poor countries.
Merck & Co. and Wellcome Trust said the non-profit joint venture, to be based in India, is "the first-of-its-kind research and development (R&D) joint venture with a not-for-profit mission to focus on developing affordable vaccines to prevent diseases that commonly affect low-income countries."
In addition to developing vaccines for unmet needs, the R&D partnership, MSD Wellcome Trust Hilleman Laboratories, will seek to optimize existing vaccines, they said in a joint statement.
"The heart of this concept is the creation of a sustainable R&D organization that operates like a business, but with a not-for-profit operating model, to address the vaccine needs of low-income countries," they said.
