The first new vaccine developed as a public-private partnership, and prequalified by the World Health Organization (WHO) of Geneva, made its debut in December. Twelve million children and young adults across Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger were inoculated with MenAfriVac a new conjugate vaccine against meningitis A (group A Neisseria meningitides). Group A epidemics occur every 7 to 14 years in sub-Saharan Africa and in 2001, the nonprofit PATH, of Seattle, and the WHO set up the Meningitis Vaccine Project (MVP) to introduce an affordable vaccine specific for Africa. With $70 million in seed funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, the partners developed a vaccine priced at $0.50 a dose. Development took less than a decade and cost less than one-tenth the $500 million usually required to bring a new vaccine to market. Success depended on forging key collaborations: Amsterdam-based Synco Bio Partners provided the polysaccharide ingredient, the Serum Institute of India in Pune contributed the tetanus toxoid and affordable manufacturing, and the US Food & Drug Administration laboratories in Bethesda, Maryland, licensed a technology for conjugating vaccine components. The WHO approved MenAfriVac in June 2010. Marc LaForce, MVP global program leader, is pleased with the “outstanding” 95% vaccination coverage. “It speaks to the high level of acceptance on the part of the population,” he says.