Pneumococcal vaccine support

The issueImpact

Global rollout of pneumococcal vaccines is underway

The rollout of pneumococcal vaccines in the developing world is underway across three continents. Nicaragua, Honduras, Guyana, Sierra Leone, Yemen, Kenya, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mali are the first GAVI-eligible countries that are in the process of rolling out pneumococcal vaccines in 2010 and 2011.

The new pneumococcal vaccines are highly complex and sophisticated vaccines that in the past might otherwise have taken over ten years to reach children in the world’s poorest countries.

Thanks to the work of the GAVI Alliance, its donors and partners, these children can be protected today.

To date, 19 GAVI-eligible countries have been approved to receive the vaccine. If sufficiently funded, GAVI plans to support the rollout of the pneumococcal vaccines in more than 40 countries by 2015. By rapidly scaling up the number of countries and the number of children receiving the vaccine, GAVI and its partners can avert approximately 700,000 deaths by 2015 and up to seven million deaths by 2030.

The introduction of these vaccines is largely thanks to the generosity of Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, the Russian Federation, Norway, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation who together contributed US$ 1.5 billion through an innovative financing mechanism, called the Advance Market Commitment (AMC) for pneumococcal vaccines.

The aim of the AMC is to stimulate the development and manufacture of new vaccines for developing countries.

Two manufacturers have thus far committed to supply 600 million doses over the next 10 years. We expect that additional manufactures from emerging markets will submit new pneumococcal vaccines for approval soon.