Advanced Market Commitment (AMC) launched to accelerate the delivery of life-saving pneumococcal vaccines for children worldwide
The governments of Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, Russia and Norway – along with the GAVI Alliance, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Bank – came together last month to launch the Advanced Market Commitment (AMC) an initiative designed to accelerate access to vaccines against pneumococcal disease. This means that children in the world’s poorest countries can receive life-saving vaccines 15-20 years before they might otherwise have become available and at prices within reach of their governments. The AMC is also spurring development and deployment of two newer pneumococcal vaccines that extend protection specifically against strains of pneumococcal disease most common in the developing world.
The AMC concept is a simple one. If a company develops a new vaccine, and the world’s poorest countries demand it, then the AMC uses funds from rich nations to buy the vaccine at an initial price that covers the company’s investments and risks. The company is then obligated to provide the vaccine to poorer countries at much lower, pre-established prices. Thus, the AMC provides a market where previously there was none, encourages investment in targeted research and development and rewards specific outputs – in this case, doses of a life-saving vaccine.
The launch of the pilot pneumococcal Advanced Market Commitment (AMC) promises to have a huge impact on global health by making vaccines available where they are desperately needed, at sustainable prices, more rapidly than ever before. This marks the beginning of a new era for vaccine access and delivery in the developing world that is projected to save 5 to 7 million lives by 2030.
“Financial barriers to vaccines have been overcome,” said Dr. Orin Levine, Executive Director of PneumoADIP at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “The price of action will be measured in dollars. The price of inaction will be measured by the number of children who will lose their lives to a preventable disease.”
Read more at the GAVI Alliance Media Center.
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World Pneumonia Day to bring attention to the world’s forgotten killer of children
November 2, 2009 will mark the first annual World Pneumonia Day to mobilize efforts to fight a neglected disease that kills more than two million children under age five every year. This event will provide an important opportunity to educate policymakers worldwide about pneumonia’s overwhelming toll and the opportunities for its prevention.
PACE encourages organizations get involved by:
- Dedicating a part of their November newsletter to World Pneumonia Day and the issue of pneumonia
- Participating in a PACE event, organizing their own, or mobilizing members to take action on November 2, 2009
- Co-authoring an op-ed in partnership with PACE designed to call attention to this important issue
- Displaying a banner in the organization’s lobby to promote World Pneumonia Day
To learn more about World Pneumonia Day and how to get involved, visit www.worldpneumoniaday.org or PACE’s World Pneumonia Day resource page at www.sabin.org/PACE.
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Israel adds pneumococcal vaccine to national immunization program
This month, Israel added pneumococcal conjugate vaccines to their national immunization program, becoming one of only six Middle Eastern countries that have introduced pneumococcal vaccines to date.
"Given the public health benefits of pneumococcal vaccines, this is an important step in helping to protect the more than 150,000 babies born in our country each year against pneumococcal disease – a serious public health threat," said Professor Ron Dagan, Director of the Paediatric Infectious Disease Unit in the Department of Pediatrics at Israel’s Soroka University Medical Center and the Ben-Gurion University.
The vaccine will be included as part of the routine medical program offered by Israel's Family Health Services (Tipat Halav). Infants will receive two doses (at two and four months of age), followed by a booster dose at 12 months of age. Read the press release.
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Child vaccination begins in the Ajloon region of Jordan
In June, Jordan received a shipment of 15,000 donated pneumococcal 7-valent conjugate vaccine doses to help boost the kingdom's efforts to combat pneumococcal disease. Five thousand children living in the Ajloon region, which was selected by the country's Ministry of Health, will be vaccinated against life threatening diseases including pneumonia and meningitis thanks to this donation, which was provided by Wyeth.
The vaccination effort comes at the heels of two recent conferences which highlighted the promise of pneumococcal vaccines in Jordan. Dr. Ciro A. de Quadros, PACE Co-Chair and Executive Vice President of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, and Dr. Keith Klugman, PACE member and Chair of Global Health at the Rollins School of Public Health spoke at these events.
“This is an important step forward for Jordan,” said Dr. Keith Klugman. “Our hope is that all the children in Jordan will soon have access to life-saving pneumococcal vaccines.”
Read more about Jordan’s vaccine program here.
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Global health experts call for inclusion of PCV into India’s national immunization program
Indian and international experts in child health gathered in Pune, India to urge leaders in India to take immediate steps to control and prevent pneumonia morbidity and mortality – a leading cause of death among children under five years of age in India.
The conference, hosted by the Asian Strategic Alliance for Pneumococcal disease prevention (ASAP) and the Indian Academy of Pediatrics, emphasized the need for pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) in order to prevent pneumococcal disease in infants and children.
“India leads the world in under-five mortality, with 2 million children dying every year,” says Dr Jagdish Dhekne, President of the Pune Branch of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics. “Of these, 400,000 deaths are due to pneumonia.”
Read the full news story on this conference.
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USAID pledges $75 million towards GAVI immunization efforts
In June, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) contributed $75 million to improve and expand children's immunization programs in developing countries. The grant was announced by Deputy Secretary of State Jacob Lew at the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) Board of Directors Meeting.
“Today's children will become tomorrow's doctors, scientists, engineers and leaders,” Lew said at the Board of Directors Meeting. “Ensuring better health for the world's children is an investment in the prospects of the next generation.”
The USAID contribution is part of the overall U.S. commitment to global health and the new global health initiative, a 6-year, $63 billion dollar effort announced by President Obama in May. The contribution brings the total U.S. commitment to $569 million to the GAVI effort. The U.S., through USAID, also serves on the GAVI Alliance Board, and provides technical guidance at the international and country levels.
Read the press release.
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Link between pneumonia and influenza reinforces need for pneumococcal vaccination
In a study published earlier this year, researchers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the National Institutes of Health concluded that the majority of deaths in the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic likely resulted directly from secondary bacterial pneumonia. Data from the subsequent 1957 and 1968 pandemics were consistent with these findings.
The links reinforce the need for pneumococcal vaccination particularly in the face of potential H1N1 (Swine Flu) pandemic. Experts suggest that preparations for a future pandemic flu outbreak should include removing barriers to pneumococcal vaccination before a pandemic and treating all serious cases with antibacterials effective against pneumococcus, Hib and S. aureus. For more information, visit PneumoADIP’s Special Issue on Pneumonia and Influenza.
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More countries apply for GAVI funding
Since the introduction of the pneumococcal vaccine in Rwanda, neighboring countries Mali, Benin, Nigeria and Sierra Leone have officially applied for GAVI funding support. If approved, the countries will receive GAVI support to introduce the pneumococcal vaccines and associated vaccine technology. GAVI's support aims to accelerate their uptake and to improve vaccine supply security.
Rwanda became the first low-income country to introduce pneumococcal vaccine for its children in April. Ten other low-income countries have already been granted approval to introduce this vaccine in partnership with GAVI Alliance.
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