Some of the world's leading pharmaceuticals companies have announced deep cuts in the price of vaccines for people in poor countries, in a move that will start to address a multibillion-dollar funding gap at the heart of the international effort to vaccinate children against killer diseases.
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Merck, Crucell and Sanofi-Aventis all offered new prices for vaccines that they supply to Gavi, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization body set up by Microsoft founder Bill Gates. GSK discounted by 67% a rotavirus vaccine, which protects against diarrhoea diseases that kill more than 500,000 children a year, and Merck also offered a deep discount on a rotavirus vaccine. Two other India-based firms Serum Institute and Panacea Biotec also offered vaccine price cuts.
The price cuts won praise from aid agencies. But although they are likely to help save lives, they will only go a small way to help fill a $3.7 billion (£2.2 billion) shortfall that Gavi is facing. Helen Evans, Gavi's interim chief executive, said: "These are promising offers that demonstrate industry commitment to work towards affordable and sustainable prices."
Save the Children's chief executive, Justin Forsyth, called the big pharma initiative "a landmark move, potentially saving the lives of hundreds of thousands of children". But he added: "It's important that Gavi now uses this to spur other vaccine producers to reduce prices and work to foster greater competition amongst producers to drive prices down even further and help even more children."
Oxfam and Médecins sans Frontierès (Medicines Without Borders), whose doctors give vaccines in the field, blame the $3.7 billion black hole in vaccine funds on a system in which Gavi bulk-buys vaccination programs at unsustainable prices from western companies.
British Prime Minister David Cameron is hosting a funding conference in London next Monday, which Bill Gates is due to address.
Tuesday, June 07, 2011
Vaccine Price-Cuts Win Praise, But $3.7 Billion Funding Gap Remains
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