Drug giants to step up sales of vaccine

The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) is buying an additional 180 million doses of Pfizer’s pneumococcal vaccine Prevenar 13 and a similar quantity of GSK’s Synflorix at a deeply discounted price of $3.50 a shot.

The GAVI Alliance, a public-private partnership set up in 2000 to speed the introduction of vaccines into the world’s poorest countries, hopes to avert up to seven million deaths by 2030 by giving the vaccines to infants and young children.

Pneumococcal disease, which can cause pneumonia, meningitis and sepsis, kills more than half a million children every year. GSK’s Synflorix protects against 10 strains of the streptococcus pneumoniae bacterium, while Pfizer’s Prevenar 13 shot protects against 13 strains.