New Fund to Subsidise Pneumonia, Meningitis Vaccines

The governments of five developed countries, along with the US charity Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, on Friday committed $1.5 billion to provide low-cost vaccines for some of the world’s poorest nations, according to a press release.

Canada, Italy, Norway, Russia and the United Kingdom, along with the charity started by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, launched the first advance market commitment to help speed the development and availability of a new vaccine, expected to save the lives of 5.4 million children by 2030.

This is a first step in an effort to create a market for life-saving vaccines for children in the world’s poorest countries. The initiative will target pneumococcal disease, a major cause of pneumonia and meningitis, which kills 1.6 million people every year.

‘Pneumonia accounts for more than 30 per cent of total deaths by disease in Bangladesh, and this initiative will help direct these vaccines to parts of the world like Bangladesh, where they are needed the most,’ said Samir Saha, a microbiologist at Dhaka Shishu Hospital and pneumococcal diseases specialist.

‘We could save the lives of 8 lakh children every year with subsidised vaccines that our government would otherwise not be able to afford,’ Saha said.

Saha, a member of a global pneumococcal diseases consultant group, said the subsidy would expand the market for such vaccines and encourage pharmaceutical companies to come forward and compete with each other, which in turn is likely to push down vaccine prices in the future.

The World Bank president, Paul Wolfowitz, joined Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan and high-level representatives of Canada, Italy, Norway, Russia, and the United Kingdom in announcing the pilot AMC in Rome, Italy.

The AMC will test a new model for spurring development of vaccines, specifically those that prevent disease strains prevalent in developing countries. The pilot will provide 7 to 10 years of funding to support the development of future vaccines against pneumococcal disease and will include provisions to assure the long-term sustainable supply and price for the poorest countries.

‘With the launch of the first AMC, we can save lives, and we will do it with the investment and expertise of industry,’ said Wolfowitz. ‘The key aim is to accelerate the production of viable and urgently needed vaccines for the poorest countries where thousands of children die every day from diseases that can be prevented.’

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