The Vaccine Hunters
BBC SERIES - 4 x 23-minutes

Vaccines are one of the greatest medical successes of the last 100 years. Three quarters of the 130 million babies born every year are now immunized against diseases which in the past could well have killed them. Vaccines mean we live in a much healthier world, where fewer children die or become economic burdens on their families. For every dollar spent on vaccines, it's estimated $27 dollars is saved in treatment. In "Vaccine Hunters" is a ground-breaking, four-part series, made for BBC World which examines the challenges, the developments and the science of modern vaccines. The series goes round the world to investigate what is happening in the most up-to-date labs in the world to find out what vaccines are being developed, particularly the holy grail - immunizing for malaria and HIV. One of the next major developments scientists are working on is to produce vaccines that could treat as well as prevent disease. New vaccines are highly expensive to produce. So who is going to pay for the next generation of life savers, including the cost of getting vaccines from the lab to the field? Vaccines are also big money. One prediction is that the value of the global vaccine market will go from being worth over £5 billion today, to around £20 billion in ten years. A staggering increase! Thanks to immunization diseases like tetanus, polio and TB, which were feared in the past, are fading from memory. Many millions of people have been saved by vaccine programmes. But there are millions more, many living in the most remote areas, who would benefit. It's estimated 8-million people a year die from diseases simply because they don't have access to the vaccine. "Vaccine Hunters" is an informed and comprehensive look at the world of vaccines today.

The Challenges
23-minutes, 2007
Ref: 614

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This is the first film in the series and it explains where we stand with vaccines now. It gives the history of vaccines, the latest science, rising costs and finance and the rows and controversies. It touches on the history of vaccine development. What is a vaccine, how and why have they been successful, what are the future challenges for both scientists and health systems in making vaccines even better? How important will be the part played by new technology? All these questions and more are asked and answered in this programme. The sequences include our babies, new filming in laboratories and research centres. Archive includes rotavirus and why vaccines need to be tested on children in developing countries and how the first generation of vaccines weren't effective and how vaccines are an important tool for social justice. Interviews with scientists at the cutting edge will ask about the holy grails like malaria and HIV plus a swift breakdown of the vaccine industry.

The Vaccine Business
23-minutes, 2007
Ref: 615

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Vaccines are expensive and the funding is complex. From Big Pharmaceuticals to public sector, to universities, to NGOs, the UN, non-profit, not-for-profits and huge donations from private foundations, for the drug companies the trail from discovery to delivery requires deep pockets, a clear understanding of the market and ruthless commercial instincts. This programme unpicks the way we pay for vaccines and looks at who benefits. Is this a business that just serves rich shareholders - or does it deliver vaccines to the poor who need them most? And what are the recipient countries themselves doing to pay the costs? Indeed, holding developing countries to account for where the money goes is a key part of building a better future between developed and developing countries. It looks at the financial rewards and pitfalls and at the network and partnership of companies, organisations and governments that has been built up by GAVI to make the global vaccine campaign more accessible and efficient. Sequences will include our babies, labs and research centres. Archive will include rotavirus and a discussion of the cost of developing vaccines, HIB with studies of rich and poor families in India and how vaccines is something we cannot afford not to afford because the cost of treating diseases is so crippling.

From Discovery to Delivery
23-minutes, 2007
Ref: 616

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The major challenge facing the modern world of vaccines is to get them to people right at the end of the line - those people who still don't have access to effective treatment. It's not always remote villages way out in the country, it can also be communities in some of the world's massive slums. The problem is vaccines tend to be complex and sophisticated medicines. Many involve skilled disease diagnoses, difficult delivery systems like cold chains, trained staff to administer them and the complex follow-ups and monitoring systems. This film looks at the physical difficulties and costs of getting vaccines to people in remote or forgotten places and people stuck in the middle of wars. The film hopes to follow Julian Lob-Levyt, head of GAVI, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation, on a field trip to Africa as he follows the journey of a consignment of vaccines from arrival to injection. It will show how investment is needed in health systems and infrastructures. Sequences will include our babies, a specially filmed sequence in a country (yet to be decided) showing the complete journey from arrival to injection. The archive will also illustrate the physical challenges. Flying pneumo vaccines in Alaska, cold train fridges in South Africa. Hep B - lots more cold train shots, the journey on bikes across rivers and rough terrain. Measles - we hope to have new material from DRC, we already have footage from Tajikistan about how children missed out on vaccines because of the civil war. Rotavirus, shots of travelling across rebel territory.

The Final Frontier
23-minutes, 2007
Ref: 617

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The big issues, the controversies, the debates - and the future. Despite the excellent track record of vaccines in some quarters they are still treated with considerable suspicion. How can - and should - these doubters be convinced? We show this: Polio - in Tajikistan we filmed a father who refused to let his daughter be vaccinated because he thought it was a secret method of birth control. There have also been riots against Polio vaccination campaigns and strong resistance to other vaccines like HPV (for example, immunising catholic girls against a sexually transmitted disease). HPV is also important in terms of the trend for preventable vaccines - it's harder to harness the immune system to make a therapeutic vaccine but scientists have been successful in trials currently taking place for vaccines targeting melanoma, kidney, lung and breast cancers, Hodgkin's and Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. How - and is this the future of vaccines? Plus, this programme will bring together the big thoughts of the key players in the world of vaccines, people right at the cutting edge of policy and science including Julian Lob-Levy, Dr Ciro de Quadros, who runs the Sabin Institute in Washington - both are world renowned experts in the field - and Queen Rania of Jordan, a member of the GAVI board and a powerful advocate of vaccines. We will be filming her at a vaccine project near Amman. Indeed all three of these interviewees - plus others - will be threaded through all four programmes. Sequences will include a final look at our babies, the labs, the research centres and the impact vaccines have had on global health and a look forward about what impact they could have in the future.