Delay in the pneumonia vaccine deal

Earlier this year, Glaxo Smith Kline and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations announced an agreement to bring pneumonia vaccine to the underdeveloped world. The GAVI was to buy the pneumonia vaccine from Glaxo at a reduced cost. The vaccine is easily available in the developed world, but is next to impossible to obtain elsewhere.

What was not announced however, was a year long delay in getting the vaccine to the children. The World Health Organization has not given it's blessing to the project. The WHO has asked for a trial run of the vaccinations to take place in Kenya, before going to the rest of the world.

From the Guardian's Global Health blog, Sarah Boseley explains why the WHO wants the delay.

You might have thought the life-saving vaccine would even now be on its way to most of Africa. Not so. There is a hitch. GSK is not selling the one-dose vaccine it markets in Europe to the developing world, but a two-dose version. The World Health Organisation, which has to approve the vaccine through what is called "pre-qualification", told GSK that it could not give the green light immediately because two-dose vaccines usually require preservatives, and this one does not have them. WHO approved it, but only for Kenya, where GSK must collect two six-months sets of data to prove there is no problem in its correct use by health workers.

While a GSK spokesman told me they supported the idea of a trial to ensure the vaccine was properly used in an African setting, this surely means no African child outside Kenya will be protected by the GSK vaccine before 2012 (the Pfizer vaccine has not yet gone through the pre-qualification process).

It matters not just because GSK won a lot of headlines without mentioning the delay, but because there are those who think there are ways of getting these desperately-needed, life-saving vaccines to small children faster. Medecins sans Frontieres and Oxfam have today produced a report, called Giving Developing Countries the Best Shot, which suggests that the reliance of donors on the giant multinational pharma companies may be misplaced. Their products cost too much and it takes too long to get them to those who need them.

The pneumococcal vaccine will cost $21 a child, say the two organisations, which they describe as "an unacceptably high price for donors and developing countries to bear." Yet we are talking about a vaccine that has been used for a number of years in wealthy countries, which has generated billions of dollars for the pharmaceutical companies.

[Press Release] Rich Nations To Sign $1.5 Billion Vaccine Pact In Italy

from The World Bank

“The Group of Seven (G7) rich countries will sign an agreement on Friday to provide $1.5 billion to develop vaccines for poor countries, the government of Italy, which is among those heading the initiative, said on Tuesday.

The new Advanced Market Commitments for Vaccines program, under the auspices of the G7, is ‘aimed at saving millions of lives in the poorest countries and supporting their economic growth with new methods,’ the Italian economy ministry said. The mechanism involves donor nations making a prior commitment to buy vaccines which are under development at a preferential price once they are launched, thereby creating a demand-led market for new vaccines needed by poor countries.

Italy, Britain, Canada and Norway will announce funding commitments on Friday at a ceremony attended by Italian Economy Minister Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, Britain's Gordon Brown, Canada's Jim Flaherty and World Bank chief Paul Wolfowitz. Jordan's Queen Rania will preside over the launch and the G7 officials will explain the program in person to Pope Benedict at the Vatican on Friday before traveling to Essen in Germany for the G7 meeting, said the Italian ministry in a statement. …”

Brown to meet Pope on trip to launch vaccination scheme

from The Guardian

Gordon Brown will have an audience with Pope Benedict XVI today during a trip to Rome to launch a vaccination scheme for children in the developing world.

The chancellor will also hold talks with the Italian prime minister, Romano Prodi, in what will be seen by observers as a further indication of his status as "prime minister-in-waiting" before Tony Blair's expected departure this summer.

Britain has joined forces with Italy, Canada and Norway to create a £750m fund to encourage drug companies to develop vaccines for pneumococcal disease, which kills 1.6 million people - including one million children under five - each year.

It is hoped that the Advance Market Commitment fund will speed provision of protection against the illness to 100 million children and save five million lives by 2030.

The AMC is a new financial mechanism which works by providing a ready market for drugs which are desperately needed in poorer countries and by giving these nations the purchasing power to obtain discounted prices for the medicines when they become available.

At present, private-sector pharmaceutical research is heavily tilted towards conditions predominantly affecting the rich world, where companies are guaranteed a lucrative market for any effective treatment.

As a result, just 10% of £50bn-plus invested globally each year in health research is devoted to diseases responsible for 90% of the world's health problems.

Only 16 of the 1,400 new medicines developed between 1975 and 1999 were for these neglected diseases.

By establishing a credible market in the poorest countries, an AMC creates incentives for private-sector investment in vaccines tailored to the needs of those countries.

A vaccine for pneumococcal disease has been chosen as the target for the first AMC, because the condition is the leading cause of child pneumonia deaths, as well as the second leading cause of childhood meningitis deaths.

Pneumonia claims the lives of 1.9 million children each year, almost 20% of all child deaths.

It is intended that future AMCs will provide funding for developing countries to acquire vaccines against malaria and other fatal diseases.

Mr Brown will speak at the launch of the AMC at the Italian government's finance ministry in Rome, also attended by Queen Rania of Jordan, Paul Wolfowitz, the president of the World Bank, and ministers from Italy, Canada, Norway and Ghana.

The promoters of the initiative will also be received in a private audience by the Pope, and Mr Brown will later hold talks with Mr Prodi at his official residence, the Palazzo Chiggi.

The meeting with the Pope comes shortly after the government clashed with the Roman Catholic church over plans to require all adoption agencies to handle requests for help from gay couples.

The row - which ended with the offer of a transitional period for Catholic agencies - is thought to have strained the loyalties of Labour's traditional working-class Catholic vote, particularly in parts of Scotland.