Global Vaccine Alliance Board Approves $3.5B Investment Strategy That Includes HPV Vaccine

Main Category: Cervical Cancer / HPV Vaccine
Article Date: 27 Jun 2008 - 9:00 PDT

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The board of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) -- a public-private partnership that invests in childhood vaccinations in developing countries -- endorsed a $3.5 billion vaccine investment strategy for 2009 to 2020 that expands the focus to vaccines for adult women, including human papillomavirus, Reuters reports. According to Reuters, providing HPV vaccines to prevent cervical cancer and providing rubella vaccines to prevent miscarriages and birth defects were among the seven priority investments approved by the board.

GAVI -- backed by funders such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as the governments of Brazil, France, Norway, South Africa and the United Kingdom -- also plans to prioritize vaccines to protect children against cholera, typhoid, rabies, meningitis A and Japanese encephalitis. "This strategy will attack some of the world's major killers and gives us a new challenge in our efforts to provide good health to the world's most vulnerable people," GAVI Executive Secretary Julian Lob-Levyt said in a statement.

In a report to the board, GAVI said, "The portfolio ... has the potential to avert approximately two million deaths across different age groups and all GAVI countries within 10 years." It added, "Moreover, with HPV and rubella vaccines, GAVI would have an opportunity to protect vulnerable women against a serious and fatal disease and congenital anomalies of their newborns" (MacInnis, Reuters, 6/25).

According to a GAVI release, over the next few months, the group will assess the remaining priority vaccines relative to country demand, as well as resource and vaccine availability. The board plans to meet later this year to decide on GAVI's financial commitment and implementation of the strategy (GAVI release, 6/25).

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