Vaccine Group Seeking $7.5 Billion To Improve Global Health

The GAVI global vaccines alliance, which funds immunization roll-out programs in poor nations across the globe, is on a critical mission to immunize 300 million more children against life-threatening diseases through 2020, saving up to 6 million lives worldwide, Reuters reported.  The price tag: $7.5 billion. 

Since its inception in 2000, GAVI has targeted common but deadly diseases such as pneumonia, diarrhea, and cervical cancer and estimates it has saved around 6 million lives since. The organization said Tuesday that it intends to double the number of vaccine recipients to nearly 12 million by 2020 through its programs. However, additional investments from global health philanthropists and governments of developed countries are absolutely crucial to achieve this goal.

How it works

GAVI is financially backed by organizations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Bank, UNICEF, donor governments, and others. It uses its private and government donors' funding to negotiate with pharmaceutical manufacturers such as GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Merck, and Pfizer to lower vaccine prices for the poor. GAVI then essentially buys the meds in bulk from its partner companies and delivers them to countries that need them most.

According to Reuters,  “The organization says its influence on the vaccines market so far has led to a 37 percent decrease in the cost for a GAVI-eligible country to vaccinate a child with pentavalent, pneumococcal, and rotavirus vaccines since 2010."

"The investments we all make now can ensure the equivalent of two children every second will be reached with GAVI-supported vaccines for five years and secure the future health and economic prosperity of all our children in years to come," GAVI chairman Dagfinn Hoybraten added.

Pharma steps up

Answering GAVI's plea, GSK announced Tuesday that it will "freeze the prices of its vaccines for five years for developing countries that graduate from GAVI Alliance support." The drugmaker will offer GAVI Alliance reduced prices for pneumococcal disease, rotavirus, and cervical cancer vaccines as well as support developing country governments until they have the ability to pay the full cost of their local vaccination programs.

In a similar move in July 2013, Pfizer entered into a supply agreement with GAVI to provide 740 million doses of its Prevenar 13  vaccine in the world’s poorest countries through 2025 — upping their original commitment by 260 million.

Prevenar 13 protects young children against 13 strains of pneumococcal disease, which is one of the leading causes of "vaccine-preventable" deaths globally in children under the age of five.

In a statement to Reuters, GAVI CEO Seth Berkley explained that if the alliance reaches its target of $7.5 billion, they would have $2 billion in additional funds already in hand to save lives through vaccines during the 2016 to 2020 timeframe.