The Coalition for Safe and Innovative Medicine was founded to work toward creating a process for review and approval of safe and effective medicines and vaccines that:
- Maintain the current high scientific standards to ensure patient safety
- Are effective in saving lives and/or stop the spread of communicable illnesses
- Preserve Incentive for Innovation
We know from the COVID-19 pandemic that immunization technology is rapidly evolving, and that progression of technology is allowing scientists to develop new ways to fight other diseases.
Patients’ access to new preventative products depends on the CDC recognizing that these new technologies are the future of health care.
It is critical that any new product intended for broad use across a specific population receive consideration for the CDC recommended immunization schedule and inclusion in the Vaccines for Children program, just like any other immunization in our public health toolkit.
Vaccine Immunization
As the COVID-19 pandemic has shown, immunization technology is evolving every day.
When science demonstrates that an immunization can prevent severe disease and hospitalizations, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) should evaluate that immunization for placement on its recommended immunization schedule based on its benefits to public health, not the technology it uses. Some new products in development deliver protection through passive rather than active immunization and deliver antibodies directly to the person instead of stimulating the immune system to develop antibodies.
Even though they use new technology, there is no reason for preventative products not to be on the CDC recommended immunization schedule if the science shows that they provide the same level of protection from hospitalization and death as our existing vaccines. The CDC’s acceptance of new immunization technology is especially important to protecting our children, as the CDC dictates what products the federal Vaccines for Children program, which provides free immunizations to more than 40 million children who are uninsured, underinsured, or eligible for Medicaid, can administer. More than half of all children in the U.S. benefit from this wildly successful program, which has a proven track record of closing racial and income disparities in childhood immunizations and improving long-term public health outcomes.