WASHINGTON – U.S. officials should revise the National Vaccine Strategy to accelerate development of high-priority vaccines, according to a new report released by the Institute of Medicine (IOM).
In a report released Friday, an IOM committee said the strategy should emphasize the importance of expanding funding for safety research and monitoring, and include the development of a national communications strategy to clarify the importance of vaccines and bolster public confidence in the immunization system.
The updated plan should also call for a greater proportion of vaccine research and development to be directed at specific goals, such as producing vaccines against diseases for which there are none or developing a single vaccine that would work against all influenza viruses, the committee said. The majority of vaccine research and development stems from the focus and interests of individual researchers rather than a set of priority targets identified through a centralized planning process, the committee found.
The plan should also establish a permanent group to advise the government on safety issues. Little vaccine research supported by the National Institutes of Health appears to be geared toward safety, the committee said.
As the number and kinds of vaccines have increased, funding to monitor safety has not. The monitoring system has successfully caught problems such as a rare but severe intestinal injury linked to a discontinued rotavirus vaccine, but the Immunization Safety Office within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention needs more resources to do its work, according to the study.
The report also said the National Vaccine Plan should include plans to use social networking to educate the public on vaccines and provide a plan to pay for vaccinations for the elderly and low income individuals.
