Russia hopes that the fund for development of dangerous disease vaccines will be launched by the end of 2006 –Alexei Kudrin

ST. PETERSBURG, June 13. /PRIME-TASS/. Russia hopes that the fund for development of dangerous disease vaccines will be launched by the end of 2006, Russia’s finance minister, Alexei Kudrin, declared at a press conference held at the end of the past week.

“By the year end, a new mechanism may start operating for combating diseases that are regarded as the most dangerous,” he declared. The minister pointed out that the fund’s money would be allocated to pharmaceutical companies engaged in the development of vaccines. The vaccines distribution in the poorest countries will be also financed out of the fund.

Kudrin emphasized that millions of children died every year of such diseases as malaria and pneumonia in Africa alone.

The minister recalled that 1.6 billion people had no access to electric power so far, “and this is in the 21st century!” According to his forecasts, this number will only grow unless the urgent measures are implemented.