The All India Drug Action Network (AIDAN), a network of NGOs working to increase access and improve the rational use of essential medicine, has initiated efforts to raise public opinion against the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations mandating the member states to introduce pneumococcal (Hib) vaccine even though various studies suggest that the vaccine does not have the claimed benefits in Asian countries.

The network will now approach the fellow NGOs working for better healthcare and availability of affordable medicines to create mass support on the points raised repeatedly with the WHO, said Dr Gopal Dabade, co-convener, AIDAN. The NGO alleges that the WHO has issued a press statement along with some other international agencies suggesting that the vaccine was useful in a study conducted, even as the study showed no statistical difference between the vaccinated subject group and the controlled group and was the report was presented without conducting proper multiple testings.

After the study and after WHO made it compulsory for all countries to use Hib, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), partner of WHO, supplied the vaccine to poor countries at highly subsidized rates, using funds from donor countries and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation meant for the Millenium Development Goals (MDG), says the organisation in a letter sent to Dr Margaret Chan, director-general of WHO, earlier.

“Given that the vaccine is not beneficial in Asia, this suggests that Global Fund was defrauded of millions of dollars meant for the poor and that money was siphoned off to vaccine manufacturers who sit on the GAVI board. In its place a worthless vaccine was supplied. It is no point saying that the vaccine has been useful in other areas of the world. The studies in Asia were done because it was felt the situation here was different,” continues the letter.

The AIDAN also raises questions about the Advance Marketing Commitments (AMC) for pneumococcal vaccines, activated between governments of five countries and organisations including WHO, World Bank, Unicef, GAVI Alliance and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to make the vaccine available in developing countries.

The AMC, at a time when the alliances are finding hard to launch the vaccination programme due to lack of adequate funds, is helping the big pharma to siphon off the MDG and GAVI funds to the vaccine manufacturers without much positive result in the poor patient population, they said.

The network also pointed out that, according to a study published by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and Oxfam International in the beginning of May, 2010, the joint efforts of GAVI and donor countries to improve uptake of the blockbuster pneumococcal vaccines in resource-poor settings have stumbled on funding crisis while the multinational drug companies have already generated billions of dollars in revenue from the product in wealthy nation markets.

“We will now approach various organisations in the country to raise public opinion against the WHO decisions, since we doubt conflict of interest because of corporate partnerships involved in this,” said Dr Dabade.