GAVI Alliance

View the GAVI Alliance's website

The GAVI Alliance is a unique global network, representing both private and public interests, whose goal is to create greater access to the benefits of immunization. Some of GAVI’s partners include:

• Governments of industrialized countries
• Governments of developing countries
• The World Health Organization (WHO)
• Research & Technical Health Institutes
• The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
• UNICEF
• The World Bank
• Vaccine Industry from Industrialized Countries (i.e. Merck, GSK, Wyeth)
• Vaccine Industry from Developing Countries (i.e. Panacea Biotech, India; Bio Farma, Indonesia)

The Alliance makes it possible for developing countries to have accelerated access to existing or underused vaccines, to strengthen health and immunization systems in countries, and to access innovative new technologies and vaccines. This saves millions of lives worldwide.

The GAVI Alliance receives funds from its partners, as well as through capitalization of bonds. The Alliance attempts to receive long term pledges from donors so that their funding on a year to year basis is predictable.

Over the first five years of its existence, the GAVI Alliance steadily increased the number of countries using hepatitis B, Hib and yellow fever vaccines to protect their populations. 2/3rd of GAVI funding is used to purchase vaccines, and the remainder is used for ‘health system strengthening’ projects. WHO projections indicate that expanded immunization had prevented an estimated 600,000 premature deaths in 2006 alone.

Advanced Market Commitment
The GAVI Alliance has also instituted an Advanced Market Commitment (AMC) for a pneumococcal vaccine. An AMC is a financial commitment, usually by a government or foundation, used to guarantee a viable market if a vaccine (or other drug) is successfully developed. Bound by legal agreements, sponsor countries or foundations agree to provide financial commitments to subsidize the purchase cost of future medicines for a period of time, and manufacturers agree to meet criteria for effectiveness and to provide the medicine at affordable prices.

AMC’s will help bring a vaccine for a developing country to developing countries more quickly as they help to promote capacity investment, and may also impact the design of the vaccine (i.e. the pneumococcal strains that exist in developing versus developed countries may be different. An AMC will ensure that the manufacturer includes strains specific to developing countries).