The mandatory condition for stable supply of vaccines to Ukraine is long-term contracts, Senior Medical Manager at GSK Vaccines Mark Doherty has said.

"It is economically viable to buy vaccines from large manufacturers. The task of the state is to ensure long-term planning and procurement order. Only this would allow manufacturers to satisfy the declared need in vaccines in the due time and in full amount. Without long-term contracts shortages and epidemics are inevitable," he told Interfax-Ukraine during a media visit to one of the largest vaccine production sites of GSK in Wavre (Belgium).

Doherty said that securing the proper level of coverage with preventive vaccination is a guarantee of epidemiological security of the country. Creation of the national long-term strategy for protecting Ukrainian population from vaccine-preventable infections and organization of stable supplies of vaccines in the amount suiting the country's needs is a top priority task the state and immunobiological preparation manufacturers face.

"Production of vaccines is a complicated biotechnological and resource-intensive process accompanied by many safety assessment, each stage quality control, registration and licensing procedures. Production of vaccines could last up to 26 months. It could pass up to three years from the moment of determining the volumes of production to the delivery of vaccines to end consumers," the expert said.

He said that despite the anti-vaccine movements, demand on vaccines is growing all over the world, as society and governments of many countries understand the undeniable advantages of preventive medicine and vaccination particularly.

"Today many countries in Europe earmark only 2-3% of the healthcare budget for preventive medicine – more funds is spent on treatment than prevention of diseases. Unfortunately, this is the system that we should change. However, many countries started seriously treating not only vaccination of children, but also adults, which requires an additional amount of vaccines," Doherty said.

He said that now in the world more and more local and small international manufacturers refuse to produce vaccines, due to strict regulatory procedures. Therefore, today production of vaccines is more a fulfillment of the social mission for global healthcare than a business that generates profit. GSK has been actively cooperating with international intergovernmental organizations for many years, such as GAVI and UNICEF, which are engaged in vaccine prevention at the global level. The only major international manufacturers can withstand regulatory requirements and meet large needs. Local companies are not able to organize production without subsidies from the state, and this can not be done by every country.

Doherty also said that the production capacities of even the largest pharmaceutical companies are not unlimited and there is a global deficit of some vaccines due to a shortage of production capacities to meet the increasing demand for vaccines in the world.

He said that GSK is making efforts to meet demand, but the company does not allow the overabundance of vaccines, since disposal of immunobiological materials is expensive.

Commenting on the prospects for increasing vaccine production, Doherty said that, for example, forecasts about the organization of such production by local companies in Latin America and Asia, particularly in South Korea and Japan, were not justified.

"This is partly due to the fact that it is technically difficult to develop a vaccine that would meet all international standards, in part because there are many profitable segments of pharmaceutical production than vaccine production," he said.

Doherty said that, at the same time, in many countries there was an increase in demand on vaccines outside of North America and Europe.

Commenting on the possibility of localizing vaccine production, in particular in Ukraine, Doherty said that "this is possible," but these production sites should be provided with a sufficiently large number of orders.