Global Alliance for Vaccines (Gavi). Gsk blocks prices for 10 years in countries leaving the Gavi Alliance
Global Alliance for Vaccines (Gavi) renews its global pledge totaling $7.54 billion, largely from the UK government and the Foundation Bill & Melinda Gates, which will allow countries to immunize an additional 300 million children and avert up to 6 million premature deaths. The Berlin Conference saw Britain pledge $1.57 billion for 2016-2020, while the Gates Foundation pledged $1.55 billion. Norway offered 969 million, the United States 800 million, Germany 720 million. Italy has promised to add 120 million dollars to the 317 already allocated. For the first time, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and China are also contributing, although the latter has only contributed $5 million. Ireland pledged $18 million. Bill Bates said, "We believe in the next 15 years, the lives of the poor will improve faster than at any other time in history and that access to vaccines provided by Gavi are critical to making that happen." At the Gavi conference, some pharmaceutical companies pledged to reduce vaccine prices.
BDC – January 29, 2015 – PharmaKronos
Gsk blocks prices for 10 years in countries leaving the Gavi Alliance
States that withdraw from Alliance support will be able to pay the same subsidized price
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) renews its support for the Gavi Alliance by extending the price freeze on its vaccines. With this initiative, developing countries that the Gavi alliance considers in need of support to improve economic well-being will be able to continue to purchase vaccines for pneumonia, rotavirus and cervical cancer at the same significantly reduced price, as per agreement with Gavi itself, even 10 years after the end of the support from the association. Gavi is a public-private partnership initiative that aims to increase access to vaccination in 73 of the world's poorest countries. “Over the past 15 years – says Sir Andrew Witty, CEO of GSK – Gavi has helped protect hundreds of millions of children in the poorest countries on the planet from infectious diseases and has undoubtedly saved millions of lives. As longtime Gavi supporters, we continue to take action to make sure we're doing all we can to increase access to vaccines. Our extended price freeze is designed to keep vaccine prices stable for countries exiting supportive policies, ensure the sustainability of Gavi's model, and help more children reap the benefits of immunization programs national". From 2016, 22 countries with growing economies will begin to free themselves from Gavi's support. This process allows Gavi to focus resources on the poorest countries, while helping governments assume increasing responsibilities in vaccination programs over time. In anticipation of Gavi's fundraising conference scheduled for tomorrow in Berlin, GSK also reconfirmed that if the company is able to achieve greater production efficiency such as to reduce the cost of vaccine production, the related economic savings will be offered to Gavi and its supporters. “Even more children from the world's poorest nations – said Luc Debruyne, president of GSK Vaccines – will be able to be vaccinated against an unprecedented number of diseases. This has been made possible thanks to the unprecedented cooperation between governments, groups such as Gavi and pharmaceutical companies. Four out of 5 GSK vaccines are made available to developing countries at a substantial discount compared to the prices of Western countries. We offer our lowest prices, which can be even less than a tenth of those in developed countries, in Gavi. At this price level we can barely cover our costs, and this is the key to making our offer in Gavi sustainable. We obviously continue to study new ways to reduce production costs and all the savings we obtain will be passed directly to Gavi”. GSK is committed to offering more than 850 million doses of vaccine that could help protect up to 300 million children in developing countries by 2024.
Barbara DiChiara – January 29, 2015 – PharmaKronos
