Vaccine deal signed - 47 developing countries to receive low priced vaccines by 2015

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDMar 24 2010

The deal

Pharmaceutical giants have signed a historical 10-year deal on Tuesday pledging the supply of 60 million doses a year of pneumococcal vaccines at cut-prices to developing nations.

This deal was made possible by the Geneva-based Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) and is the first of its kind in a new scheme called the Advance Market Commitment (AMC). AMC will guarantee a market for vaccines for poor nations while at the same time decided on a ceiling price the pharmaceutical companies can receive.

Pneumococcal disease is a leading killer causing pneumonia and meningitis. It kills 800,000 under fives and overall 1.6 million people in total a year and 95 percent of these deaths occur in Africa and Asia.

According to GAVI pneumococcal vaccines could save nearly 900,000 lives by 2015 and seven million lives by 2030. GAVI plans to provide these vaccines to 47 countries by 2015.

Pioneers in this pledge are Glaxo and Pfizer. Each have committed to supple 30 million doses of their Synflorix and Prevnar 13 to GAVI over 10 years. The rates decided were at $7 per dose for the first 20 percent supplied, dropping to $3.50 for the remaining 80 percent. At present the costs of this vaccine is between $54 and $108 per shot. Synflorix protects against 10 strains and Prevnar 13 against 13 strains of this deadly bacteria.

Julian Lob-Levyt, GAVI's chief executive said, "This is a landmark deal. It has been the result of four years of intense work and negotiation, and it means that this year, 2010, we can begin to roll out a better pneumococcal vaccine that can tackle one of the biggest killers of children in the poorest parts of the world."

The funds & Profits – Skeptics’ view point

This deal will obtain part of its funds from Britain, Italy, Canada, Russia, Norway and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. According to GAVI a further $1.5 billion is needed over the next 5 years to fund this initiative.

However Tido von Schoen-Angerer, Director of the essential medicines program at the international group Doctors Without Borders said that even at these low prices “it’s still quite an expensive vaccine in a developing country context.” With at least three doses required, the price would initially be $21 per patient.

Dr. von Schoen-Angerer also said that while the costs issues for this project was telling on GAVI, the pharmaceutical companies are still making a profit. According to the experts he has consulted, he revealed that each dose cost $1.50 to $2.50 to manufacture. The actual production costs were not revealed by the companies but they did not deny that they would be making profits.

“Certainly the whole notion was to create a sustainable model,” said Gwen Fisher, a spokeswoman for Pfizer. “It wasn’t to make it into a money-losing proposition.”

Way forward

This deal may lead to more vaccines being available to poorer countries like Rotavirus vaccine protecting from life threatening diarrhea. Both Pfizer and Glaxo have shown interest in further AMC deals saying that this commitment can ensure the use of such vaccines by people who need them most.

Pfizer's senior vice president in charge of global biopharmaceutical businesses Ian Read said the AMC deal was a "major milestone" in GAVI's plans to get effective drugs to the world's poor.

"Creating access is not just about having medicines, it's also about getting medicines to people who need them."

Other firms like Panacea Biotech and Serum Institute of India have also registered for this kind of commitment and this could lead to price drops in vaccines in the long run.

Earlier on it took years before a vaccine developed in the West could be available to developing countries like in Africa. This program might bring these first vaccines to reach Africa. “American kids and African kids will get this new vaccine in the same year,” Dr. Levine of Johns Hopkins said. “That’s just never happened before.”