The Hindu : National : ‘Pneumococcal vaccine’s average cost is $4.25’

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‘Pneumococcal vaccine’s average cost is $4.25’

Christopher Endean, Communications, GAVI Alliance, Geneva, writes:

The GAVI Alliance would like to highlight two misleading statements in the story headlined “Bill Gates Foundation’s funding policy criticised,” (The Hindu, Tuesday June 30, 2009).

First, the story quotes a letter to the monthly medical journal The Lancet by two Indian doctors, Gopal Dabade and Jacob Puliyel, which suggests the pneumococcal vaccine supported by GAVI’s Advance Market Commitment (AMC) costs an average $250 per child. In fact, the average cost per dose of AMC vaccines is $4.25 (averaging the doses that will be bought at $7 in the AMC period and those that will be bought at maximum $3.50 in the tail period).

Therefore, the cost of vaccinating 1000 children is $12,750 ($4.25 multiplied by 3 doses per treatment multiplied by 1000 children) and not $2,50,000, as stated by Dabade and Puliyel. This represents an excellent investment to help prevent one of the biggest killers of children in the poorest parts of the world.

Second, the article’s final paragraph reports that “vaccine prices actually went up after GAVI-funding,” citing a 2008 analysis of the financial sustainability of immunisation programmes. The quote is correct, but fails to point out that the analysis is based on the first phase of GAVI’s work, from 2000-2006. Since then, the cost of most GAVI funded vaccines including Hep B, DTP-HepB-Hib, DTP-HepB, has declined — a clear sign that GAVI’s innovative methods are paying off. Detailed information on price trends for GAVI purchased vaccine can be found on the UNICEF website ( http://www.unicef.org/supply < http://www.unicef.org/ supply/files/5__-_DTP_ cont_EPI_Vaccines_-_ M._Shirey.pdf> )

It is thanks to innovative finance mechanisms like the AMC and the International Finance Facility for Immunisation (IFFIm), as well as the combined support of 17 donor governments and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, that GAVI’s support for life-saving vaccines has successfully prevented an estimated 3.4 million premature deaths since 2000 ( http://www.gavialliance.org /performance/global_results /GAVI_Alliance___Results_

2008___Vaccines.php

< http://www.gavialliance.org/performance/global_results/GAVI_Alliance___Results_2008___ Vaccines.php> ).

In the same period, WHO estimates that 213 million additional children have been reached by GAVI-supported vaccines for diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis, Hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenza type b. These figures underline the importance of GAVI’s role in reaching the Millennium Development Goals, especially MDG 4 to reduce child deaths.

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