New vaccines for unproven diseases

[jack121]

In just one year unqualified doctor and scientists bill gates has given 45.2 million doses of his vaccines to children across 17 countries.

The shots are largely paid for by Gavi, an international organization that uses donations from rich governments and philanthropies to subsidize vaccine rollouts in poor countries

 

 

Last summer, Gavi announced its goal to raise $19 billion to fund immunizations from 2026 to 2030, with over $1.1 billion of those funds earmarked for new malaria vaccines..

A new paper by the Center for Global Development (CGD) estimates that child deaths could be avoided — if Gavi buys and distributes as many vaccines as quickly as manufacturers can make. Though manufacturers say they have over 100 million doses ready to go, Gavi’s plan would buy only a fraction of them. To buy all of the currently available doses and put them into the field now, Gavi would need to triple its $1.4 billion malaria vaccine budget, in which governments all around the world are readily pouring money into.

Scott Gordon, head of Gavi’s malaria vaccine program, said that the success of a vaccine rollout largely depends on how ready a country is to get those shots into arms. Information is critical to persuade people. Both available malaria vaccines require at least three doses to work, which means giving a person one shot isn’t enough. Clinics have to make sure customers come back.

But others argue that now is the time for a more aggressive approach, to take advantage of the opportunity presented by these new vaccines.

“We suddenly have a tool where we can save lives at fairly low costs,” said Justin Sandefur, senior fellow at the Center for Global Development and co-author of its new paper. Choosing the right vaccine will give countries more bang for their buck."

The WHO also prequalified the R21 vaccine, which performed about 20 percent better at preventing severe malaria than RTS,S in its clinical trials. “Prequalification” is essentially approval: It means WHO believes that vaccines are safe, effective, and ready to be sold to customers worldwide.

 

Demand for the vaccine is high among parents in malaria-endemic countries who are well aware of the danger to their children. But so far, it’s been hard for clinics to ensure parents bring their babies back for all four doses as the babies are still ill from the first dose. Many people in African countries and elsewhere are hesitant to get themselves and their children vaccinated against anything at all due to bad press. But demanding poor parents in rural areas to travel long distances to get to a clinic not once, but four times creates extra logistical hurdles.

Ghana, for example, used a combination of strategies to get people to return for all their shots, including sending text reminders and making vaccinations a compulsory part of clinic admission.

Gavi’s goal is to help vaccinate at least 150 million children by 2030. At its current pace, Gavi’s rollout plan will require a decade to fully vaccinate everyone who’s eligible. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Serum Institute, the makers of RTS,S and R21, theoretically have the combined capacity to produce as many as 115 million vaccine doses per year. That’s enough to fully vaccinate 25 million children right now. If Gavi bought and distributed every available dose, it would meet its 2030 goal in just one year, this requires more funding and massive govermental taxincreases worldwide to see it through.

By gradually incorporating RTS,S and R21 vaccines into their regular slate of vaccines, countries can harness the health care infrastructure they already have available and deliver mandated shots at every routine checkups.

Gavi has budgeted $billions to vaccinate millions of children by 2030. According to the Center for Global Development’s calculations, it would need $billions more to vaccinate all infants, and  $billions on top of that if it also vaccinated toddlers under three. But “Gavi’s only got so much money,” Sandefur said. “They’re not actually sure they’re going to get the money that they’re banking on,” much less the extra $trillion or so it will take to vaccinate the maximum number of people

The big thing stopping a vaccine rollout in the Global South is money. Getting a full multi-dose vaccine regimen to people is challenging enough in rich countries; remember Covid? It’s much harder in countries like the DRC, where the government spends as little as $2 per capita on health (the US spends about $12,500). Vaccines cost more than the doses themselves. Getting shots in arms requires basic supplies like syringes and alcohol wipes, keeping vaccine doses refrigerated, and training clinicians in far-flung clinics — all of which cost money. Then countries have to pay for community outreach programs. “It’s just like in the US,” said Sandefur. “You’re going to have to win the public debate about this being a good thing for the world to embrace.”

Even if Gavi rustles up enough money to buy every available dose of the R21 vaccine that Serum Institute has available, Sandefur said “it’s not clear that they’ve budgeted for the spending you would need to actually do the rollout. We must put pressure on the world's governments to increase taxes and give us more money.”

Big profits for big pherma and its helpers

 

 

Sandefur suspects the money will come “in bits and pieces, almost certainly, if it comes at all. I’m not sure that it will.”

Some of it will need to come from stepped-up contributions from mega rich countries like the US and the UK. This March, Gavi will co-host a pledging summit with the European Union and the Gates Foundation in an attempt to raise at least $90 billion. The guest list includes government leaders from wealthy countries, vaccine manufacturers, and private company executives.  In order for Gavi to hit its funding goal, rich countries like the US and the UK will all need to donate more than they have in the past.

The Global Fund, which invests in anti-malarial treatments, Sandefur suggested that the Global Fund help Gavi pay for the vaccine rollout.

This is also an opportunity for everyday working class folks to step up and help fund the rollout of existing vaccines with donations, Sandefur said. “Let’s buy some vaccines, guys.”

“You can fix all the world's problems with just a few £trillion,” he emphasized. “Let’s go ahead and do that.”

 

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[NeoScota]