By Kate Kelland
LONDON Tue May 20, 2014 4:40am EDT
<span id="articleText"><span id="midArticle_start"/> LONDON (Reuters) - The GAVI global vaccines alliance issued a plea on Tuesday for $7.5 billion to help immunize another 300 million children against life-threatening diseases between 2016 and 2020 and save up to 6 million more lives.
<span id="midArticle_1"/>GAVI said the additional investments, which it hopes to get mainly from global health philanthropists and the governments of developed nations, could double the total number of lives saved through GAVI-supported vaccines to an estimated 12 million.
<span id="midArticle_2"/>"We are faced with an historic opportunity to support countries to build sustainable immunization programs that will protect entire generations of children," the group's chairman, Dagfinn Hoybraten, said in a statement.
<span id="midArticle_3"/>"The investments we all make now can ensure the equivalent of two children every second will be reached with GAVI-supported vaccines for five years and secure the future health and economic prosperity of all our children in years to come."
<span id="midArticle_4"/>GAVI, which is backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Health Organisation (WHO), the World Bank, UNICEF, donor governments and others, funds immunization programs for poor nations that cannot afford to buy vaccines at rich-world prices.
<span id="midArticle_5"/>The group targets common but deadly diseases such as pneumonia, diarrhoea and cervical cancer and says it has already saved around 6 million lives since its launch in 2000.
<span id="midArticle_6"/>Seth Berkley, GAVI's chief executive, told Reuters that if the alliance were to achieve its target of an extra $7.5 billion, this would be added to $2 billion already in hand for the 2016 to 2020 period.
<span id="midArticle_7"/>This is around 15 percent more than GAVI has for the current five-year period, he said, but an acceleration is necessary because there are still around 1.5 million children who die each year of vaccine-preventable diseases.
<span id="midArticle_8"/>Berkley said the economic benefits of fully funded, sustainable vaccine programs in poorer countries would result in between $80 and $100 billion in gains, partly by cutting the costs of treating illness, and increasing population productivity by keeping people alive and well into adulthood.
<span id="midArticle_9"/>GAVI uses its private and government donors' backing to negotiate with pharmaceutical firms such as GlaxoSmithKline, Merck and Pfizer to bring down vaccine prices for the poor. It then works with partners to bulk-buy and deliver them to countries whose populations need them most.
<span id="midArticle_10"/>The group says its influence on the vaccines market so far has led to a 37 percent decrease in the cost for a GAVI-eligible country to vaccinate a child with pentavalent, pneumococcal and rotavirus vaccines since 2010.
<span id="midArticle_11"/><span id="midArticle_12"/>(Editing by Alison Williams)
<span id="midArticle_13"/>
LONDON Tue May 20, 2014 4:40am EDT
<span id="articleText"><span id="midArticle_start"/> LONDON (Reuters) - The GAVI global vaccines alliance issued a plea on Tuesday for $7.5 billion to help immunize another 300 million children against life-threatening diseases between 2016 and 2020 and save up to 6 million more lives.
<span id="midArticle_1"/>GAVI said the additional investments, which it hopes to get mainly from global health philanthropists and the governments of developed nations, could double the total number of lives saved through GAVI-supported vaccines to an estimated 12 million.
<span id="midArticle_2"/>"We are faced with an historic opportunity to support countries to build sustainable immunization programs that will protect entire generations of children," the group's chairman, Dagfinn Hoybraten, said in a statement.
<span id="midArticle_3"/>"The investments we all make now can ensure the equivalent of two children every second will be reached with GAVI-supported vaccines for five years and secure the future health and economic prosperity of all our children in years to come."
<span id="midArticle_4"/>GAVI, which is backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Health Organisation (WHO), the World Bank, UNICEF, donor governments and others, funds immunization programs for poor nations that cannot afford to buy vaccines at rich-world prices.
<span id="midArticle_5"/>The group targets common but deadly diseases such as pneumonia, diarrhoea and cervical cancer and says it has already saved around 6 million lives since its launch in 2000.
<span id="midArticle_6"/>Seth Berkley, GAVI's chief executive, told Reuters that if the alliance were to achieve its target of an extra $7.5 billion, this would be added to $2 billion already in hand for the 2016 to 2020 period.
<span id="midArticle_7"/>This is around 15 percent more than GAVI has for the current five-year period, he said, but an acceleration is necessary because there are still around 1.5 million children who die each year of vaccine-preventable diseases.
<span id="midArticle_8"/>Berkley said the economic benefits of fully funded, sustainable vaccine programs in poorer countries would result in between $80 and $100 billion in gains, partly by cutting the costs of treating illness, and increasing population productivity by keeping people alive and well into adulthood.
<span id="midArticle_9"/>GAVI uses its private and government donors' backing to negotiate with pharmaceutical firms such as GlaxoSmithKline, Merck and Pfizer to bring down vaccine prices for the poor. It then works with partners to bulk-buy and deliver them to countries whose populations need them most.
<span id="midArticle_10"/>The group says its influence on the vaccines market so far has led to a 37 percent decrease in the cost for a GAVI-eligible country to vaccinate a child with pentavalent, pneumococcal and rotavirus vaccines since 2010.
<span id="midArticle_11"/><span id="midArticle_12"/>(Editing by Alison Williams)
<span id="midArticle_13"/>
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