Michael Kremer and Ruth Levine, co-chairs of CGD's Advance Market Commitment (AMC) working group, welcomed the announcement in Rome on Friday of a $1.5 billion AMC for a vaccine to prevent pneumoccal disease, which annually kills 1.6 million people in the developing world, mostly from pneumonia and childhood meningitis. They urged the donor community to move forward with AMCs for other urgently needed health products--such as vaccines against malaria and HIV--where there is a compelling human need but no commercially viable market. CGD's AMC working group helped to lay the groundwork for Friday's announcement.
