Five governments and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledged $1.5 billion on Friday to help give poor countries better access to vaccines against pneumococcal disease such as pneumonia and meningitis. The Advance Market Commitment program creates financial incentive with a guaranteed price to persuade companies to invest the large sums of money it takes to develop new vaccines…[V]accine research is often viewed as a low priority by pharmaceutical companies, especially when the target market is the developing world…Participating companies will agree to long-term commitments to supply the vaccines at lower and sustainable prices even after the donor funds are spent…[refers to GlaxoSmithKline, Wyeth]