Availability of quality vaccines: the industrial point of view.

Availability of vaccines may be temporarily affected by sudden peak demand, coming on top of the vast increases of regular demand that the world has witnessed; this must be addressed by sound planning, and flexibility both from manufacturers and users. Temporary shortages are not structural in nature, and capacity is at hand to meet demand. Transfer of technology to developing nations is not likely to make the supply of vaccines of good quality any easier, faster or substantially cheaper, as the constraints that determine vaccine manufacture will not change merely by locating a production unit in a developing nation.