SWITZERLAND — The Board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance today approved an evolution of its current 5-year program strategy that will see renewed focus on routine immunization and reaching zero-dose children.
Part of the new resolutions also entails new vaccine introductions, a strengthened Alliance role in outbreak and pandemic preparedness and response, alongside continued COVID-19 vaccinations in the 92 lower-income countries supported by the Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment.
Professor José Manuel Barroso, Chair of the Board, was confirmed for a second, three-year term.
The two-day meeting, which concluded today, also approved a relaunch of the Alliance’s HPV vaccination program.
An ambitious plan to support sustainable regional vaccine manufacturing, particularly in Africa, was also adopted.
The Board also gave a green light to leverage Gavi’s decades-long experience combatting the continuum of outbreaks, epidemics, and pandemics, including the recent learnings from COVAX, for pandemic preparedness and response (PPR).
A decision to continue ensuring COVID-19 vaccines are accessible to the 92 Advance Market Commitment (AMC) countries was also approved by the Board.
While the current priority remains to help countries raise coverage levels and boost high-risk groups, the Board also endorsed plans to start preparing now for future evolutions of the virus.
While COVAX continues to have in place plans for worst-case scenarios, the Board agreed, in principle, to explore integrating future COVID-19 vaccinations into Gavi’s core programming – in a bid to improve synergies, be more responsive to countries’ needs and reduce the additional burden a specialized emergency response places on countries.
This approval in principle will help Gavi engage with countries and partners on what shape a future program would take, while also remaining flexible in case of further developments in 2023.
“Never before have Gavi-supported countries administered as many vaccines as the billions of doses they did in 2021. Yet routine immunization has been impacted hard by the pandemic for two consecutive years and it is essential that we help countries to address this,” said Professor José Manuel Barroso, Chair of the Board of Gavi.
“The decisions taken at this week’s meeting will help the Vaccine Alliance enter a Year of Renewal; not only its historical mission to leave no one behind with immunization but of the Alliance itself, introducing new innovations and ways of working learned from the pandemic,” he added.
Other decisions made by GAVI’s Board
Gavi’s Board expressed overwhelming support for the relaunch of the HPV vaccine program with over US$ 600 million investment.
The money will go towards funding vaccines, strengthening health systems, and providing technical and learning support.
With cervical cancer causing 342,000 deaths in 2020, 90% of which occurred in low- and middle-income countries, the HPV vaccine is one of the most impactful vaccines in Gavi’s portfolio.
With the new funding in place, the Alliance has set an ambitious goal to reach over 86 million girls by 2025, aiming to avert over 1.4 million future deaths from cervical cancer.
The board also approved a plan to support the development of a regionally diversified vaccine manufacturing ecosystem.
Based on three pillars; support for strategic antigen selection by manufacturers/countries, market shaping, and demand creation, the initiative represents a major step forward in addressing one of the critical challenges faced during the pandemic and how to ensure all regions of the world have the ability to manufacture vaccines.
The initiative, supported by the African Union, Africa CDC, G7, and other stakeholders, also envisages the possibility of a fourth pillar, the design of a new financial instrument in the form of an Advance Market Commitment (AMC) for African vaccine manufacturing.
This will be developed over the coming year, for potential approval and launch in 2023.
Recognizing that countries and communities face increased fragility and multiple challenges, the Board sought to balance ensuring access with sustainability through Gavi transition and co-financing policies.
The Board extended timeframes for countries scheduled to transition out of Gavi support, put in place lower, time-limited, co-financing requirements for new malaria vaccines, and extended the Gavi eligibility and co-financing exemptions for inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) in support of polio eradication efforts.
The board also confirmed zero co-financing requirements for outbreak response and refugee populations currently not integrated into national plans.
For all the latest healthcare industry news from Africa and the World, subscribe to our NEWSLETTER, and YouTube Channel, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn, and like us on Facebook.
