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When the project began in the summer of 2001, uh, some of us in the project that included
myself and individuals at WHO were not completely satisfied that we had sufficient information
from African public health officials about the actual needs themselves. So, we spent
the better part of the first year in Africa talking with EPI directors, talking with individuals
at the regional office of the World Health Organization, and uh, individuals in countries
themselves. And all of the individuals pretty much said the same thing: that there was an
important funding challenge for the introduction of a new vaccine in sub-Saharan Africa. And
when we asked specifically what was the ceiling, what was it that they could work with, and
they felt it was less than 50 cents, less than 50 cents a dose.
We essentially became a virtual vaccine company. We made a decision to actually make this vaccine.
But, we didn’t have a plant, uh, we didn’t have intellectual property, we didn’t even
have polysaccharide, and so we really had nothing, and so the challenge was to translate
that nothingness to a product and proving that this product met all international standards.
That was the hard work. I will confess that a lot of people said that
this was just foolishness, that this couldn’t happen. But it did.