A new multi-million dollar project has been launched to speed up access in developing countries to a vaccine against the world's leading cause of severe diarrhoea among children. The goal of the three-year US$30 million venture is to ensure that a vaccine against the rotavirus is made available to children in developing countries at the same time as it is to those living in the developed world, a move that, it is claimed, could save half a million lives a year.