Why are you restricting this initiative to just MSD and Wellcome Trust?

We are not. The Hilleman Laboratories will be able to partner and collaborate with other private and public organizations from the outset. In fact, we anticipate working with many partners. We feel that the initial governance of the joint venture was simplest if focused on two partners.

We strongly believe that combining a research charity and a pharmaceutical company in a joint venture with equal funding and equal decision-making rights will efficiently produce affordable vaccines to prevent diseases that commonly affect people in low-income or developing world countries.

Over time, we intend to engage a range of potential partners who we will work with to help us achieve our goals; however, no specific partner collaborations have been discussed to date.

Can you explain the financial model behind this sustainable initiative?

Hilleman Laboratories will develop vaccines that can be sold at affordable prices in the world’s poorest countries. It will explore a range of business models based on core support, project-specific grant funding, and royalties and revenues received from intellectual property generated by the Hilleman Laboratories.

For instance, pharmaceutical companies, including MSD, and other partners who choose to collaborate with Hilleman Laboratories moving forward, will have the option of retaining commercial rights to products developed by Hilleman Laboratories as long as affordable and broad access to low-income countries is secured. Any income received by the Hilleman Labs will be reinvested into helping develop and deliver more affordable vaccines to people in developing world countries.

Will long-term survival beyond the initial seven-year commitment primarily depend on the ability to attract additional funding?

MSD and The Wellcome Trust want the Hilleman Laboratories to be a successful, long-standing vaccine and medicines development institute and have committed to funding the Laboratories for a minimum of seven years. We hope that the Hilleman Labs is able to attract funding from new sources. However, both parties foresee the possibility of additional grants and investments when Hilleman Laboratories begins to yield promising innovations.

Will the Hilleman Laboratories’ work be limited to developing world diseases?

The work of the Hilleman Laboratories will focus on diseases that affect low income countries. However, the innovations that the Laboratories will create may have utility in middle income or high income countries.

With a focus on the developing world, what happens to middle-income countries?

Hilleman Laboratories plans to develop innovative products for those in need around the globe. Vaccines will also be designed to be affordable. They will be made available at lowest sustainable prices in the least developed settings and at low profit or tiered pricing in middle-income countries.