POST 00901E : Hib INITIATIVE

POST 00901E : Hib INITIATIVE Follow-up on Posts 00885E, 00887E, 00890E and 00896E 22 March 2006 ___________________________ This posting contains two contributions, both from Michel Zaffran (mailto:[email protected]) from GAVI in Geneva. In the first, he briefly answers my question in post 00896E. It is thus subsidies. I was just wondering to whom really go the untimate benefits of this system. In the second, he explains GAVI vision about vaccine costs, question raised by Anthony Battersby in his previous contributions on the Hib Initiative. ___________________________ Claude, GAVI subsidy of prices to poorest countries is a way to tier prices and accelerate availability for poorest should there be a recognised need for the vaccine. In the case of tetra and penta, the price was more fixed by the manufacturer (monopoly) than by GAVI. Michel ------------------------- Learning from the experience gained during the first 5 years of support to countries, GAVI has moved away from the approach of donating the vaccines . It is now subsidizing the vaccines at a price that is much lower than the market price. Countries will however have to decide, based on the evidence they have at their disposal, or the evidence they collect with the support of partners such as WHO, UNICEF, the Hib Initiative etc... whether the introduction of the new vaccines, at the proposed subsidized price, makes public health and economic sense. They should clearly be empowered to make an informed decision and prioritise among the public health interventions at their disposal. There are two assumptions :: 1) over the next 5 to 10 years the advent of new emerging suppliers will generate competition and drive the prices of the vaccines downward to more affordable levels and 2) during the same period of time the health and immunization budgets of the concerned countries will increase and enable them to pay for the market price of the vaccines at the end of the subsidized period. While some of the 72 countries will achieve this objective, (we are already seeing a few countries moving in that direction) we will certainly be proven wrong for other countries. Indeed , these are the 72 poorest countries in the World! In the interim, (10 years) lives will have been saved and part of the economic burden associated with infant mortality will have been reduced. As sustainability of the effort will not have been achieved for these countries, it will continue to be a moral imperative and the responsibility of the international community to continue to support them. In summary: * Introduction of the vaccines should be an evidence-based country decision: Partners such as WHO have a critical role to play to ensure that countries build their capacity, put in place the mechanisms to collect and analyse the evidence and decide, in the context of other public health priorities. * Country should contribute financially to the price of the vaccine, albeit at a very low level, to ensure ownership of the decision to introduce the vaccines. * GAVI and donor partners will subsidize the price of the vaccines during an extended period to allow for market forces to operate. * The broader use of the vaccine will attract additional producers that will eventually produce in larger quantities at lower costs. * However the time of penny vaccines is gone. if we want to secure reliable supplies of vaccines of assured quality, we, collectively, countries and donors, must come to the realisation that new vaccines are more expensive than the traditional ones and that these life saving interventions are well worth paying a few dollars. * The international community has the responsibility to provide long term support to the poorest countries: The recent developments of the IFFIm, the AMC pilots supported by the G7 and others are a very strong signal of their commitment to development and to immunization. Michel Michel Zaffran Deputy Executive Secretary GAVI Alliance ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit the TECHNET21 Website at http://www.technet21.org You will find instructions to subscribe, a direct access to archives, links to reference documents and other features. ______________________________________________________________________________ To UNSUBSCRIBE, send a message to : mailto:[email protected] Leave the subject area BLANK In the message body, write unsubscribe TECHNET21E ______________________________________________________________________________ The World Health Organization and UNICEF support TechNet21. The TechNet21 e-Forum is a communication/information tool for generation of ideas on how to improve immunization services. It is moderated by Claude Letarte and is hosted in cooperation with the Centre de internationale en sant, Canada (http://www.ccisd.org) ______________________________________________________________________________