Global health has improved remarkably through the introduction of a multitude of vaccines in childhood vaccination programmes since the 1950s. New vaccines that are now increasingly becoming available result from the science and technology field commonly called vaccinology which has become the domain of multinational pharmaceutical companies. The “privatisation” of vaccinology has been accompanied with the gradual erosion of public sector vaccine development and production. This thesis analyses the global impact of public sector vaccine manufacturing in the Netherlands before it was partially taken over in 2012 by the Serum Institute of India Ltd., one of the world’s largest private vaccine manufacturers that plays a key role in the supply of affordable vaccines for developing countries. The main finding of this study is that national public sector vaccinology institutions, in particular the Netherlands public health institute, have over the past decennia had a hitherto hardly acknowledged but profoundly positive impact on the global vaccine system that aims to increase access to vaccines in developing countries. This impact is the result not of supply of vaccines, but through enabling vaccine manufacturing entities (public or private) in developing countries to set up or improve their capacity. From a societal and horizontal angle this study illustrates that a divergence between policies and practices between different ministries within the same government may lead to missed opportunities for global health.