BULLETIN OF GAVI'S PNEUMOADIP AT JOHNS HOPKINS BLOOMBERG SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH
PNEUMOADIP: PNEUMOCOCCAL VACCINES ACCELERATED DEVELOPMENT AND INTRODUCTION PLAN
February 28th, 2007
GAVI’s PneumoADIP welcomes Senate legislation to involve US in Advance Market Commitments for global health technologies |
| WASHINGTON, DC, USA – February 13, 2007. “Vaccines for the Future Act of 2007,” introduced by Senator Richard Lugar, calls for the US government to provide new resources and incentives for accelerating research and development of new technologies to address global killers such as pneumonia, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. This bill requests authorization of US financial support for a pilot Advance Market Commitment for pneumococcal vaccines. This funding would bring the USA into partnership with a group of leading donors who have already committed $US 1.5 billion to the pneumococcal vaccine funding initiative.
“With this bill the USA can join an alliance of international donors – Italy, United Kingdom, Canada, Russia, Norway, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – in making the first Advance Market Commitment for pneumococcal vaccines a reality,” said Dr. Orin Levine, Executive Director of GAVI’s PneumoADIP at Johns Hopkins, “. Success will pave the way for vaccines and drugs to combat other global scourges, such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.” According to the World Health Organization, up to one million children under the age of 5 die annually from pneumococcal pneumonia and meningitis. A pilot AMC has been designed for pneumococcal vaccines to demonstrate both the feasibility of the AMC mechanism and its impact on accelerating vaccine development, production scale-up, and introduction. According to projections by GAVI’s PneumoADIP, a successful pneumococcal AMC will lead to prevention of 5.4 million child deaths by 2030, and contribute to achieving the Millennium Development Goal on child health. “Most Americans would probably agree that no child should be denied access to a life-saving vaccine just because they happen to be born in a poor country. This market-based, results-driven approach to overcome the injustice of vaccine inequality should draw broad appeal from the American public. GAVI’s PneumoADIP urges others in Congress to join Senator Lugar in sponsoring this bill,” said Dr. Levine. For more information please email Hans Kvist, hkvist@jhsph.edu |