Public-private alliance to provide immunisation programs for 300 million children globally

The UK is hosting the 2020 replenishment conference for Gavi – the Vaccine Alliance – in the hopes of raising £7.4 billion for immunisation programmes in the developing world over the next five years.   

On its 20^th anniversary, the public-private Alliance has already protected a generation of children across 68 countries; 760 million of which are more likely to survive into adulthood.

New pledges made at the conference -hosted from London on June 4 - should help reach Gavi’s goal for the next five years and its ambition to support vaccination programs for another 300 million of the world’s poorest children.

The UK, with its world leading pharmaceutical sector, is one of the six original donors to Gavi and has already pledged the equivalent of £330 million a year in funding for the next five years.

At a total of £1.44 billion, the UK continues to be the largest funder of the Alliance and central to global science and medicine development.

The huge impact that the combined donations governments and the private sector is highlighted in a new report, Generation Gavi: Partnering to protect health through life-saving vaccines*.

The authors have looked at the front line of the fight against infectious diseases in the developing world and at the exiting new vaccines that will be used, which include:

• a ‘combination’ vaccine which has already immunized 467 million children against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenzae type b all in one does, helping to immunise at scale.
• vaccine for malaria, a disease which causes 435,000 deaths each year mostly among young children in Africa. British pharmaceutical company GSK, the vaccine’s developer and manufacturer is donating up to 10 million vaccine doses to the WHO-led pilot implementation program and is committing more than USD$ 300 million for the total remaining development and manufacturing costs, and phase IV studies that will continue to assess the safety, effectiveness and impact of the vaccine.
• new vaccines that are helping control the spread of the deadly Ebola virus with one licensed Ebola vaccine and 7 candidate Ebola vaccines at different phases of development
• Rotavirus vaccines, which protect against the deadliest form of diarrhoea in young children and have protected more than 100 million children. Using rotavirus vaccines prevent 180,000 deaths and save USD$ 68 million in treatment costs every year.
• vaccines that are protecting a generation from HPV-related diseases, including cervical cancer. Without better cervical cancer prevention and control, deaths were expected to rise to 416,000 by 2035. The company MSD has donated over 1.3 million free doses to 25 institutions in 21 countries.
• vaccine technologies that will help millions of children against pneumococcal disease. Pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and GSK have both developed multi-dose vial pneumococcal vaccines, significantly reducing cold-chain requirements and shipping costs
• the Advance Market Commitment, an innovative funding mechanism and donor commitments have enabled Gavi, GSK & Pfizer to support the scale-up of manufacturing to ensure the introduction of the pneumonia vaccine for children in the world’s poorest countries. This innovative partnership has prevented more than 1.5 million childhood deaths.
• ABPI/IFPMA member companies are leading with their science to bring to market new innovative vaccines that will have an impact on global health such as vaccines for tuberculosis, typhoid, wP-IPV hexavalent combination vaccine, multivalent conjugated meningitis vaccines, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) monoclonal antibodies.

As well as funding, donations to Gavi are provided in doses of vaccines from pharmaceutical companies, who between them are often leading the research, development, and manufacture of the next wave of lifesaving inoculations.

Gavi-supported stockpiles have helped immunize more than 90 million people.

Alongside immunisation programmes, companies have developed game-changing manufacturing and supply breakthrough that make it easier to get vaccine to hard-to-reach places. 

• Pfizer has worked with Zipline, Gavi, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the UPS Foundation to establish a medical drone delivery system in Ghana meaning routine vaccines and essential medicines can get to hard-to-reach areas
• Sanofi Pasteur has developed a controlled temperature chain (CTC) for the cholera vaccine that allows it to reach the last mile, and Sanofi has also received WHO approval for use at temperatures as high as 40°C for up to 14 days.

World leaders meet with the backdrop of a global COVID-19 pandemic, which has shown why the need for Gavi as never been greater.

Industry and public sector are working together more than ever before as it seeks to find new vaccines and treatments to tackle the virus – the sort of collaboration that has come to define Gavi.

Richard Torbett, Chief Executive of the ABPI, said:

“COVID-19 has shown us why vaccine research and development is so important and why global collaborations is needed to tackle both current and future diseases.

“With a world leading pharmaceutical industry, and a longstanding commitment to Gavi, the UK is well placed to support the international cooperation needed to protect the world from infectious diseases.”

Roger Connor, President Global Vaccines GSK, said:

As we approach the Global Vaccines Summit the importance of vaccination to the health of people across the world has never been clearer. Gavi has dramatically expanded the global reach of immunisation, saving millions of lives, helping companies like ours supply vaccines to low-income countries. We have worked together for 20 years and today, we are one of the largest suppliers of vaccines to Gavi – delivering more than 740 million doses of vaccine to more than 50 countries in the last ten years, helping protect millions of children from rotavirus and pneumococcal disease. Now, it is time to make sure Gavi secures more funding, for the next 5 years. Working together, we can help protect many more millions of lives and at GSK, we offer our full support.

Hugo Fry, Managing Director Sanofi UK and Ireland, said: 

“Vaccines are one of the most important tools we have for preventing disease and through Gavi we have helped three quarters of a billion children. The current pandemic shows us that we must continue to work together to protect everyone from new threats, like the coronavirus. The pharmaceutical industry is already playing its part and is committed to doing so for the future.”

Thomas Cueni, Director General, IFPMA, said:

“I am confident that the pharmaceutical industry can meet its promise to bring all its expertise to bear in finding safe, equitable, affordable coronavirus vaccines, not least because of Gavi.  Over the past 20 years, Gavi has shown how powerful public and private partnerships can be – ensuring nobody is left behind.  The numbers speak for themselves: nearly half the world’s children are protected against deadly infectious diseases.  The search for a COVID-19 vaccine is clearly a top priority for saving lives and livelihoods, but we must never forget the need for immunization efforts to continue and remain vigilant in tracking any future viruses.   Science can bring us vaccines, and collaboration with Gavi helps deliver this on a global scale – for all our sakes.”