Interactive guide to Rwanda’s historic roll-out of pneumococcal vaccine

RWANDAFAST TRACKAFFORDABLE VACCINESPARTNERSHIP

A Rwandan nurse prepares the next dose of Prevenar, Wyeth's pneumococcal vaccine. The pharmaceutical company has donated more than three million doses for use in Rwanda and The Gambia . Copyright: GAVI/09/Thomas Rippe

An innovative financing method, pioneered by the GAVI Alliance, should ensure the roll-out of pneumococcal vaccines to developing countries does not stop at Rwanda.

The Advance Market Commitment (AMC) was designed by GAVI to dramatically shorten the time span to produce affordable vaccines for poor countries.

Through an AMC, donors commit money to guarantee the price of vaccines once they have been developed, thus creating the potential for a viable future market. These commitments provide vaccine makers with the incentive to invest the considerable sums required to conduct research and build and allocate manufacturing capacity.

Likewise, developing country governments have confidence to budget and plan for their immunisation programmes, knowing that vaccines will be available in sufficient quantity, at a price they can afford, for the long term.

In February 2007, the governments of Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, Norway, and Russia, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched the pilot AMC against pneumococcal disease with a collective US$ 1.5 billion commitment.