Leading Experts Urge Commitment From Industry and International Donors to Prepare for the Introduction of Pneumococcal Vaccines

Leading Experts Urge Commitment From Industry and International Donors to Prepare for the Introduction of Pneumococcal Vaccines

May 18, 2006

Millions of Deaths Could be Prevented by Routine Immunisation Against a Major Cause of Pneumonia and Meningitis in the Developing World

    LONDON, May 18 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- In today's online
edition of The Lancet, a group of leading global health
experts have come together to call for vaccine
manufacturers and international donors to negotiate
affordable pricing of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines and
for governments of developing world countries and their
partners to establish disease surveillance networks and
begin preparations for pneumococcal vaccine introduction.

    The experts believe that urgent action to introduce
routine childhood pneumococcal vaccination is needed
because of the enormous burden of the disease - the World
Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that about 1.6 million
people including up to one million children under five
years old, die every year of pneumococcal pneumonia,
meningitis, and sepsis.(1) In populations with high child
mortality rates, pneumonia is the leading infectious cause
of mortality and accounts for about 20-25% of all child
deaths.(2)

    This call to action comes on the eve of a meeting of G8
ministers to discuss funding vaccines. This seems to be the
latest step in major changes over the last five years in
financing of immunisation, including the creation of the
GAVI Alliance (Global Alliance for Vaccines and
Immunization) Fund. Dr Orin Levine, the lead author of the
article and Executive Director of PneumoADIP - a
non-governmental organisation that aims to shorten the time
between use of a vaccine in industrialised nations and their
introduction in the developing world - commented: "We
hope that with such mechanisms in place, all developing
countries will begin to consider that millions of children
can now be saved by the simple addition of this vaccine to
existing immunisation programmes."

    Dr Thomas Cherian, Co-ordinator, Ad Interim, EPI, WHO,
and co-author of the article added: "Pneumococcal
disease is a major global health issue; what is promising
is that a seven-valent vaccine that is effective against
seven common strains of the disease is already licensed and
in use in over 60 countries and that formulations containing
additional serotypes of the organism that are also relevant
for developing countries are under development. The WHO
considers pneumococcal vaccines to be a priority and
recognises the urgency to make these vaccines available for
children in developing countries."

    There are other pneumococcal vaccines in development,
which contain additional serotypes targeting strains of the
disease that commonly cause death and disability in the
developing world; however, these will not be available for
several years. Introducing the seven-valent vaccine now
means that lives can start to be saved straight away. This
vaccine, manufactured by Wyeth, is effective,
well-tolerated and can be delivered through existing
immunisation systems. Surveillance data from the USA
indicate that the herd immunity(i) effect from routine
childhood pneumococcal vaccination prevents twice as many
cases as the direct effects of vaccination alone -
protecting vulnerable adults as well as children.

    Responding to The Lancet paper, Julian Lob-Levyt,
Executive Secretary, GAVI Alliance, said, "There is
convincing evidence of the benefits of vaccines for major
child killers especially when such a simple health
intervention could help in meeting UN Millennium
Development Goal no. 4: to reduce child mortality by two
thirds by 2015. GAVI will be looking closely at how best to
assist countries where pneumococcal disease represents a
significant burden on public health."

    Jean Stephenne, President of GlaxoSmithKline
Biologicals, the vaccines division of GlaxoSmithKline PLC,
also welcomed the call to action in The Lancet and said,
"GSK Bio has invested many years in the development of
a vaccine that protects against the 10 most important
strains of pneumococcus serotypes worldwide, and our
candidate is now being studied in a global clinical
program.  We have a long history of supplying vaccines in
developing countries and are committed to working to make
our pneumococcal vaccine available worldwide at sustainable
prices. We hope that our partners in governments, donor
agencies, charities, and international organisations will
step up with a firm purchase commitment that will allow us
to save as many lives as possible."

    James Connolly, Executive Vice President and General
Manager of Wyeth Pharmaceuticals vaccine's business unit,
concurred with the call to action and stated, "Prevnar
has been launched in 60 countries, and has had a significant
impact on the health of children where it is in use. In the
US, three years after the routine use of Prevnar, there has
been a 94 per cent reduction in invasive pneumococcal
disease caused by the disease serotypes included in the
vaccine. We are actively working with international
agencies to help provide access to Prevnar for children in
the developing world.

    Meanwhile, Wyeth researchers are continuing to work on
new versions of Prevnar, including a version that will
address 13 of the most prevalent serotypes of invasive
pneumococcal disease, which will expand its usefulness
globally for both children and adults."

    (i) Herd immunity is the resistance of a population to
spread of an infectious organism due to the immunity of a
high proportion of the population - the US study suggests
that the herd immunity effect of pneumococcal vaccination
may be particularly strong.

    References

    1. WHO. Pneumococcal vaccines. Wkly Epidemiol Record
2003; 14: 110-19

    2. Williams BG, Gouws E, Boschi-Pinto C et al.
Estimates of worldwide distribution of child deaths from
acute respiratory infections.  Lancet Infect Dis 2002; 2:
25-32

    Notes to Editors

    Pneumococcal disease is an infection caused by
Streptococcus pneumoniae. When these bacteria invade the
lungs, they cause the most common kind of bacterial
pneumonia. The bacteria can also invade the bloodstream
(bacteremia) and/or the tissues and fluids surrounding the
brain and spinal cord (meningitis).

    According to WHO, pneumococcal pneumonia and meningitis
are responsible for 800,000 to one million child deaths each
year and more than 90 per cent of pneumococcal pneumonia
deaths in children occur in developing countries.

    The World Health Organization (WHO) is the United
Nations specialised agency for health. It was established
on 7 April 1948. WHO's objective, as set out in its
Constitution, is the attainment by all peoples of the
highest possible level of health. Health is defined in
WHO's Constitution as a state of complete physical, mental
and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease
or infirmity.

    The goal of the Pneumococcal Vaccines Accelerated
Development and Introduction Plan (PneumoADIP) is to
shorten the time between the use of a new vaccine in
industrialised countries and its introduction in developing
countries by reducing demand uncertainty and achieving an
affordable, sustainable supply of vaccines. This novel
approach is funded by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and
Immunization (GAVI) through its partner the Vaccine Fund.
PneumoADIP is located at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School
of Public Health. The mission of PneumoADIP is to improve
child survival and health by accelerating the evaluation of
and access to new life saving pneumococcal vaccines for the
world's children. For more information, please visit:
http://www.preventpneumo.org .

    The GAVI Alliance (The Global Alliance for Vaccines and
Immunization) was launched in 2000 to increase immunisation
rates and reverse widening global disparities in access to
vaccines. Governments in industrialised and developing
countries, UNICEF, WHO, the World Bank, non-governmental
organisations, foundations, vaccine manufacturers, and
public health and research institutions work together as
partners in the Alliance, to achieve common immunisation
goals, in the recognition that only through a strong and
united effort can much higher levels of support for global
immunisation be generated. Funds channelled through GAVI's
financing arm, The GAVI Fund (formerly The Vaccine Fund),
are used to help strengthen health and immunisation
services, accelerate access to selected vaccines and new
vaccine technologies - especially vaccines that are new or
under-used, and improve injection safety. In addition to
substantial funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation, The Vaccine Fund has been financed by ten
governments to date-Canada, Denmark, France, Ireland,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United
Kingdom, and the United States- as well as the European
Union and private contributors.

    For further information visit the following website:
http://www.preventpneumo.org .

    For more information, please contact:

     Hans Kvist, Director, Communications, 
     GAVI's PneumoADIP
     Mobile: [phone]
     Email:  [e-mail]

SOURCE  GAVI's PneumoADIP