GENEVA — The GAVI Alliance, a global health partnership that aims to increase access to immunization in developing nations, has recently asked for $7.5 billion in funding to help immunize 300 million children against life-threatening diseases.
The poor nations supported by GAVI cannot afford to buy vaccines at the prices set by rich and developed countries. GAVI protects people’s health in developing nations by helping increase vaccinations for “common but deadly diseases” such as pneumonia, diarrhea and cervical cancer. Using financial backing from its private and government donors, GAVI negotiates with pharmaceutical firms like GlaxoSmithKline, Merck and Pfizer to decrease the costs of vaccines. GAVI’s partners purchase the vaccines in bulk and deliver them to the countries with the most helpless populations. Since 2010, GAVI has contributed to a 37 percent decrease in the cost of immunizing children with pentavalent, pneumococcal and rotavirus vaccines in poor countries.
Currently, GAVI is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Health Organization, the World Bank, UNICEF, the Opec Fund for International Development, Anglo-American plc, Statoil, J.P. Morgan and donor governments. Since its inception in 2000, GAVI has saved around 6 million lives and protected 440 million children. With additional investments and financial support from global health philanthropists and governments of developed nations, GAVI would be able to save up to 6 million more lives.
Chief Executive Seth Berkley has reported that the additional $7.5 billion would be a tremendous contribution to the $2 billion already available to GAVI for the 2016 to 2020 period. Berkley also mentioned the economic advantages that come with fully funded, sustainable vaccine programs. By decreasing the costs of treating diseases and raising population productivity, poor countries could observe between $80 and $100 billion in financial gains.
Chairman Dagfinn Hoybraten says that GAVI’s appeal for funding is a “historic opportunity to support countries to build sustainable immunization programs that will protect entire generations of children.” The investments being made now translate to two children receiving GAVI-supported vaccines every second for five years. As of now, 1.5 million children die annually from diseases that could be easily prevented by vaccinations.
By 2020, around 25 percent of the 72 poor countries that are eligible for GAVI support will be promoted to middle-income status. As those countries lose the benefits of GAVI support, 22 million children will remain unvaccinated. To counter the problem, GlaxoSmithKline has promised to freeze the reduced vaccine prices in “graduating” countries for another five years. Nevertheless, growing economies in developing nations will soon be responsible for immunization.
In response to GAVI’s appeal for funding, the EU has pledged to increase their annual aid budget for vaccines and immunization programs from 10 million to 25 million euros, amounting to 175 million euros ($240 million) in GAVI funds for the 2014-2020 budgetary period. European Commission President José Manuel Barroso has stated that the EU is “committed, in the long term, to doing all we can to make sure that more men, women and children have access to life-saving vaccines, no matter where they live.”
Sources: EurActiv, Huffington Post, Reuters
Photo: German Center for Infection Research