An ounce of prevention on a budget: a nonprofit approach to developing vaccines against neglected diseases.

This article provides a perspective on vaccine development for neglected tropical diseases in the nonprofit setting, with particular emphasis on recombinant protein vaccines. The Human Hookworm Vaccine Initiative is discussed as a model product development public-private partnership, and the major challenges are covered that accompany antigen selection, gene cloning, fermentation and purification process development, assay development, vaccine formulation and testing and clinical evaluation for those developing vaccines, especially against neglected tropical diseases, in the nonprofit sector. Throughout this perspective, special emphasis is placed on the growing promise that product development public-private partnerships hold for developing vaccines for the world's poorest people.