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Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline in deal to supply low-cost vaccines
Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline will supply hundreds of millions of doses of their pneumonia vaccines to the world's poorest countries at heavily discounted prices under a novel agreement, reports the New York Times.
The deal was announced by the Gavi Alliance, a non-profit organisation, which estimated the program could save a total of 900,000 lives by 2015 and up to seven million lives by 2030.
Pneumococcal disease not only kills small children but also maims, leaving survivors with high rates of mental disability, seizures and deafness, says Sarah Boseley in the Guardian. She continues: "There's no doubt about the good that such a vaccine can do. But there will continue to be questions about the way the deal has been done, not least because it is the first of its kind and sets a pattern for the future".
Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline will provide up to 300 million doses each of their vaccines over a 10-year period under the new agreement. The price for the first 20% of the supply will be $7 a dose. Then the price will drop to $3.50 a dose for the remainder. The vaccines would be paid for by donations raised by Gavi and by the governments of the countries that ordered the vaccines. In Western markets, the pneumococcal vaccines sell for $54 to $108 a dose.
"For the price of a Starbucks latte, developing countries are going to be able to buy a dose of a life-saving vaccine," said Orin Levine, director of the international vaccine access center at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who has worked with GAVI.
The NYT reports that officials involved in the deal say that it historically took many years for a vaccine developed in the West to trickle down to developing countries. But the new program would make the first vaccines available to Africa this year.
"American kids and African kids will get this new vaccine in the same year," Dr. Levine of Johns Hopkins said. "That's just never happened before."
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