Drugmakers agree to lower prices on vaccine supply for developing countries
SEVERAL leading drugmakers are cutting their prices on potentially life-saving vaccines for people in developing countries in an effort to sustain supplies via the GAVI international vaccine alliance.
The price cuts, offered by both generic and branded drugmakers including GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Johnson & Johnson’s Crucell and Sanofi-Aventis’ Sanofi Pasteur, should help the alliance narrow a $3.7bn (£2.3bn) funding gap for its commitments up until 2015.
GSK said yesterday it would provide its Rotarix rotavirus vaccine to GAVI at a 67 per cent discount to the current public price – bringing it to $2.50 per dose, or $5 to fully immunise a child. Merck said it will offer its Rotateq rotavirus shot at $5 a dose initially.
Diarrhoea is one of the top two killers of children under five worldwide and rotavirus is the leading cause in the young, killing more than 500,000 children a year.
In 2009, the WHO recommended that all countries should include rotavirus vaccines in national vaccination programs, but many poorer countries struggle to afford them.
GAVI, which funds bulk-buy vaccination programs for nations that can’t afford shots at Western prices, has committed to help fund rotavirus vaccine introduction in at least 40 of the world’s poorest countries by 2015.
But the alliance is facing a shortfall of $3.7bn to fund its projects through to 2015, and has been seeking extra donor money and price cuts from drug firms to close that gap.