Vaccines save lives. Immunization is a proven tool to prevent infectious diseases, and childhood immunization is one of the great success stories in global health. (The GAVI Alliance, for example, has helped to dramatically increase access to essential vaccines in poor countries, preventing an estimated 3.4 million deaths since 2000.)
Yet many children in poor countries do not have access to vaccines. There are no vaccines for some of the diseases that cause the greatest burden of sickness and death in developing countries—including malaria, tuberculosis, and AIDS. For other diseases, safe and effective vaccines already exist, but some of these vaccines need to be tailored for developing countries. For example, they may need to be adapted to resist extreme temperatures or to protect against a particular disease strain that is common in a given region. In some cases, the high costs of vaccines and other legal and clinical barriers have delayed access to new vaccines in poor countries by 20 years or more.
Now, an innovative approach to financing could help millions of children receive new vaccines against pneumococcal disease—the leading killer of young children worldwide—beginning as soon as 2010. This new approach is called an Advance Market Commitment (AMC). AMCs give companies an incentive to invest in manufacturing and supplying new vaccines, and in developing future vaccines.
Under the new AMC, the Gates Foundation and five national governments—Italy, Canada, Norway, Russia, and the United Kingdom—have committed $1.5 billion to purchase pneumococcal vaccines once they have been developed. These commitments provide vaccine makers with incentives to invest in manufacturing plants needed to develop vaccines and produce them on a large scale. Developing countries can then purchase the vaccines at guaranteed prices they can afford.
This AMC could also stimulate the development of vaccines for developing countries. Because these countries often have little ability to pay, manufacturers give priority to providing vaccines for industrialized markets where their investments can be recouped more quickly. This AMC provides the prospect of sustainable markets in developing countries and initial sales prices that allow vaccine makers to recover their original investment. It also gives developing countries the purchase power to buy the needed vaccines.
Children in developing countries stand to benefit the most from this and any future AMCs. Many currently die from diseases that could be prevented if safe, effective vaccines were available to them at affordable prices.
Within 20 years, this first-ever AMC could help save as many as 7 million lives. Once the model has been tested through this AMC for pneumococcal disease, a similar approach is planned for future vaccines.
Visit the AMC web site for more information >