NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Thursday, December 6, 2012

DAR ES SALAAM/GENEVA, DECEMBER 5, 2012—The GAVI Alliance should systematically extend the discounted vaccine prices it obtains from pharmaceutical companies to humanitarian organizations that are often well placed to reach unvaccinated children, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said today at the GAVI Partners Forum meeting in Tanzania. Currently, humanitarian groups such as MSF are not able to obtain vaccines at GAVI prices, and are left to negotiate access to vaccines on a cumbersome case-by-case basis.

Officials estimate that one in every five children born in 2011—or 22.4 million—was not fully vaccinated. Through its work in unstable contexts and regions that persistently lag behind on vaccination, MSF is often close to children who are under- or unvaccinated.

“We need to be able to act quickly and provide life-saving vaccines to vulnerable children as these opportunities arise,” said Florence Fermon, head of MSF’s Vaccination Working Group. “We can’t afford unnecessary delays trying to get hold of vaccines through lengthy negotiations.”

MSF has tried in several places to obtain newer vaccines for use in its projects. In late 2010 and early 2011, it took MSF more than four months of negotiations with the Ministry of Health and pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline to obtain the pneumococcal vaccine for use in its projects in Kenya. Such delays form a barrier to increasing access to vaccines for vulnerable children.