GAVI welcomes a new global commitment to vaccines

A new partnership was announced today, injecting additional funding into the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation’s (GAVI) efforts to help save millions of children.  His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation entered into a partnership in which each committed US$ 50 million for immunisation programmes in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

GAVI will receive US$ 66 million to buy and deliver additional supplies of the five-in-one pentavalent vaccine and to support the introduction of new pneumococcal vaccines in Afghanistan. These vaccines help protect children from the main killers of children under five, including pneumonia, diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), tetanus, hepatitis B, Haemophilus influenzae type B (HiB), which causes meningitis.

“Private donations like this send a clear signal to our government donors that they are not alone in seeing the value of immunisation,” said Dagfinn Høybråten, Chair of the GAVI Alliance board.

Backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and an increasing number of sovereign governments since its launch in 2000, the GAVI Alliance has succeeded in immunising more than 288 million children, preventing more than five million premature deaths, according to WHO figures.

If fully funded, the GAVI Alliance will be able to immunise an additional 230 million children with pentavalent vaccine by 2015, and protect 90 million children with new pneumococcal vaccines which are already being introduced in the first of more than 40 developing countries. GAVI also plans to introduce vaccines against rotavirus in 33 countries.

Progress in global public health threatened by funding shortfalls

Last year was full of “big events” for public health, including the launch of a new meningitis vaccine and an aggressive new strategy for polio eradication, the head of the United Nations health agency said today, while stressing the need to ensure that progress is maintained in the year ahead.  (UN Daily News)

Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), noted in her address to the agency’s Executive Board in Geneva that a major issue is how much the financial crisis and economic downturn will affect public health, both internationally and within individual countries.

“Will progress stall? Will powerful innovations, like the meningitis vaccine, like the vaccines for preventing diarrhoeal disease and pneumonia, like the new diagnostic test for tuberculosis, fall short of reaching their potential?”

The Director-General noted that many organizations in global health, like the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI Alliance), and WHO itself, now face serious funding shortfalls.

In her wide-ranging speech, Ms. Chan also noted that experience showed that health initiatives survive long enough to deliver sustainable results only when they are nationally owned and aligned with national priorities and capacities.

“Self-reliance is realized only when programmes are delivered in ways that strengthen existing systems, infrastructures and capacities. Doing so helps countries reduce their dependence on aid and gives donors an exit strategy.”

 

GAVI offers new opportunity to apply for life-saving vaccines

The GAVI Alliance has issued a new call for applications from developing countries keen to protect more of their children from disease with new vaccines.

Studies have shown that immunisation not only saves lives, but also boosts economies, acting as a key driver of development.3  Increasing immunisation rates is vital to meet the health Millennium Development Goals, particularly MDG 4 on reducing child mortality.

GAVI estimates that a fully-funded programme would prevent approximately 4 million future deaths by 2015, and enable the introduction of new vaccines including importantly those that tackle major causes of the world’s two biggest killers of children, pneumonia and diarrhoea.

To continue its mission to save lives and protect people’s health by increasing access to immunisation, GAVI needs to raise approximately US$3.7 billion more within the next five years.

UN Secretary-General urges increased funding for life-saving immunizations

Stressing the vital role immunizations play in improving the health of millions worldwide, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for increasing funding for the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) – an innovative United Nations-backed initiative that has reached some 257 million children with new and under-used vaccines since it’s creation in 2000.

Increased use of vaccines can help prevent millions of deaths worldwide and contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) for child health – a two-thirds reduction in the number of deaths in children under five by the target date of 2015.

(Source:  UN Daily News)

Immunization and the MDGs – report from the Red Cross/Red Crescent and GAVI Alliance

A new joint report (Immunization:  unfinished business) from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Socieities (IFRC) and the GAVI Alliance highlights the health impacts of vaccines and the value of partnerships in achieving complex goals such as Millennium Development Goal 4 — the reduction of childhood mortality.

The report highlights that:

• Immunization is a public health ‘best buy’ and significant contributor to the health-related Millennium Development Goals.
• There is untapped potential within vaccination, and millions more lives could be saved.
• A balanced immunization investment strategy with sustained funding is needed.

The Red Cross (IFRC) is convening a side event today (Sept. 20, 6:30 – 8:00 pm) at the forthcoming MDG Summit entitled “Unfinished business: reaching the MDGs with lessons learned from global polio eradication” to promote the lifesaving power of vaccination and the key lessons from polio eradication. The event will address

1. the GPEI lessons learned and their application to the MDGs;
2. the challenges and opportunities for applying these lessons to other global health initiatives; and
3. the collaboration and partnership required to accelerate progress towards the MDGs.

Co-hosting organizations include the Government of Nigeria, WHO, Rotary International, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, GAVI Alliance and the Afghan Red Crescent Society.

The “D” Word – Economist blog

From the Economist’s Babbage blog…

LIFESAVER

FOR those in rich countries, diarrhoea is a nuisance. For those in the poor, though, it is a killer. About 1.3m children a year die from the dehydration it causes, and even those who survive may have their development stunted by the loss of nutrients it entails. One of the main causes of diarrhoea is rotavirus, so the development, four years ago, of a vaccine against this virus might have been thought good news for the poor world. It was not, though, because the trials were carried out only in rich countries and aid agencies were unwilling to subsidise the distribution in the poor world of a vaccine whose efficacy was unproven there.

That has just changed with the publication in the Lancet of clinical trials that tested the efficacy of rotavirus vaccine in Bangladesh, Ghana, Kenya, Mali and Vietnam. These trials, organised by Merck (the vaccine’s manufacturer) and the Programme for Appropriate Technology in Health (a medical charity based in Seattle), showed that although the new vaccine is not as efficacious in the poor world as it is in the rich, it is good enough to make a difference. In the wake of these studies another medical charity, the GAVI Alliance, has agreed to subsidise the vaccine. That will allow countries in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa to purchase the product at 10-30 cents a dose, compared with a market price of around $10. According to the trials’ organisers, injecting the vaccine into the immunisation programmes of the world’s poorest countries could save 2m children’s lives over the next decade.

GAVI improves access to vaccines – could save close to 1 million lives by 2015

Drugmakers Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline signed a landmark 10-year deal on Tuesday to supply 60 million doses a year of cut-price pneumococcal vaccines to developing nations (Reuters).   The deal, brokered by the Geneva-based Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), is the first under a new scheme called an Advance Market Commitment (AMC) which guarantees a market for vaccines supplied to poor nations but sets a maximum price drugmakers can expect to receive.

GAVI estimates that the introduction of new vaccines against pneumococcal disease — which causes serious illnesses such as pneumonia and meningitis — could save around 900,000 lives by 2015 and up to seven million lives by 2030. GAVI said it plans to introduce pneumococcal vaccines in 47 countries by 2015.

This AMC deal could pave the way for future deals on recently introduced vaccines against rotavirus, which causes severe diarrhea, and an experimental treatment against malaria, which combined kill millions in poor countries each year.

The AMC scheme was devised to try to encourage drug companies to make and supply medicines and vaccines to boost health in poorer countries, which are generally unable to afford the treatments.  Both Pfizer and Glaxo expressed interest in future AMC deals, saying they are committed to tiered pricing structures to ensure their drugs can get to the people who need them most.

$4.3 billion needed to fund vaccines for world’s poor

$4.3 billion is needed if the GAVI Alliance is to meet its goal of supplying life-saving immunizations to millions of children in poor countries by 2015.  In 2000, world leaders from 189 countries signed up to the Millennium Development Goals to reduce child mortality by two-thirds by 2015.

GAVI, which is supported by the World Health Organization, the World Bank, UNICEF, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and vaccine makers, says it has 40 percent of the $7 billion it needs between now and 2015 to help meet that goal.

“With $7 billion, (GAVI) will be able to fully roll out pentavalent vaccine and introduce new vaccines against pneumococcal disease and rotavirus diarrhea in over 40 countries,” it said in a statement. “These last two vaccines alone can save one million children by 2015.”

The scale of GAVI’s buying and distribution power allows it to secure much lower prices for vaccines, which are then supplied to poor nations at a fraction of their cost.

Read more

$10 billion commitment to vaccine research and delivery – Gates Foundation

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced today that they will commit $10 billion over the next 10 years to help research, develop and deliver vaccines for the world’s poorest countries (read more).  The Foundation estimates that increased vaccination could save more than 8 million children by 2020.

“We must make this the decade of vaccines,” said Bill Gates. “Vaccines already save and improve millions of lives in developing countries. Innovation will make it possible to save more children than ever before.”

Bill and Melinda Gates said their pledge was inspired by the remarkable progress made on vaccines in recent years. For example:

• Record-breaking vaccine access: New WHO data show that global vaccination rates have reached all-time highs.
• Improved routine immunization: Partnerships focused on reducing diseases like polio and measles are also helping build a stronger foundation for the delivery of both new and existing vaccines.
• New vaccine introduction: Important new vaccines for the two leading causes of global child deaths—severe diarrhea and pneumonia—are becoming available.
• R&D momentum: The vaccine research and development pipeline is more robust than ever.

Many of the recent advances in vaccine development and delivery have been driven by public-private partnerships such as the GAVI Alliance and the Rotavirus Vaccine Program at PATH, which coordinate the resources and expertise of vaccine companies, donors, UNICEF, WHO, the World Bank, and developing countries.

This commitment by the Gates Foundation follows the recent release of two studies in the New England Journal of Medicine which estimated that vaccines against rotavirus could save 2 million children over the next decade.  The studies showed that vaccinating babies against rotavirus significantly cut deaths from diarrhea — by 61 percent in Africa and by 35 percent in Mexico.

PAHO’s vaccine system hampers African efforts

Efforts to make newer and more costly vaccines widely available to the poorest in Africa are being hampered by a long-standing system that makes vaccines affordable to middle-income Latin American countries, reports the Financial Times.

The Pan American Health Organization’s (PAHO) revolving fund, which began in 1979, negotiates substantial discounts with manufacturers on prices in richer countries, offering in exchange significant volumes, predictable demand and funding.

At issue is a clause demanding that the vaccines purchased for these middle-income countries are made available at the “lowest possible price” charged anywhere in the world, making it impossible to negotiate even lower prices to poorer countries.

Disagreement between PAHO and the Global Alliance on Vaccines and Immunisations (GAVI), has already delayed wider use of certain vaccines amongst the poorest of countries.

GAVI uses mechanisms such as advance market commitments and IFFIm’s (long-term, guaranteed aid funding from donor countries) to overcome historic limitations to development funding for immunisation.

GAVI also relies on the principle of tiered pricing to provide vaccines to the poorest of countries.  Countries are grouped using a range of indicators of ability to pay, with poorer countries paying less per vaccine.

Companies have been increasingly willing to offer discounts on western prices to poorer countries, but they want richer countries to pay more in line with income levels to help support access to the poorest as well as research for future products.

Tension emerged last year over Wyeth’s vaccine against pneumonia and meningitis, which was offered to the revolving fund at $26 a dose, less than a third of its price in richer countries.  However, the fund’s demand for the lowest possible price clashes with negotiations at $7 a dose for countries served by Gavi – with gross national income less than $1,000 a head.