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A global emergency stockpile of Ebola virus vaccines, funded by Gavi, will be accessible to all countries following the procurement process concluded by UNICEF.
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Statement from Seth Berkley: “A one-of-a-kind agreement between Gavi and a vaccine producer accelerated the development of the Ebola virus vaccine. This precedent served as a model to accelerate the development and production of COVID-19 vaccines. “
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The new Ebola virus vaccine helped curb the Ebola virus disease outbreak in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which was officially declared to end in June of last year. . This emergency stockpile is an illustration of how Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and UNICEF are strengthening the global defense system against epidemics of potentially devastating infectious diseases.
Geneva, January 12, 2021 – A global emergency stock consisting of 500,000 doses of vaccine against the Ebola virus and financed by Gavi, will be made available to all countries for the response to epidemics, following the procurement procedure concluded by UNICEF with a vaccine producer. Low and lower middle income countries eligible for Gavi support will be able to access this stock free of charge and receive financial assistance to conduct immunization operations in response to the epidemic.
Prior to playing a central role in the global collaboration to ensure all countries have access to COVID-19 vaccines, Gavi funded the creation of an Ebola vaccine stockpile to strengthen global defense capabilities against the threat of devastating epidemics. The Advance Purchase Commitment (APC), a new financing mechanism developed by Gavi, had strongly encouraged producers to accelerate the development of the Ebola virus vaccines on which they were working. . In this context, Gavi had committed to purchase a certain number of doses of the vaccine, once proof of its safety, efficacy and prequalification by the World Health Organization (WHO) had been obtained.
Under the terms of this advance purchase commitment, the doses of the experimental vaccine could, even before its approval, be deployed and used “on a humanitarian basis” during epidemics. Thanks to the joint efforts of Gavi, WHO, UNICEF and the United States government, and a strong mobilization of members of the Vaccine Alliance, more than 300,000 people have been vaccinated against the disease in the DRC and in neighboring countries, which made it possible to end the epidemic raging in the provinces of North Kivu and Ituri.
“It is a real success for the Vaccine Alliance, which illustrates the importance of our public-private partnership. A new type of agreement between Gavi and a vaccine producer has helped accelerate the development of the Ebola virus vaccine. This precedent served as a model to accelerate the development and production of COVID-19 vaccines, ”said Dr Seth Berkley, Executive Director of Gavi. “By creating a stockpile of 500,000 doses of Ebola vaccine, and making it available to all countries, in the future we will be able to prevent the loss of many human lives and quickly end epidemics of Ebola virus disease. “
The stockpile will consist of doses of Ebola virus vaccine produced by the MSD company, known as Merck in the United States of America and Canada. This vaccine has been approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and prequalified by the WHO. The first deliveries for the emergency stock are funded by a contribution of US $ 20 million from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). USAID pledged in 2017 to allocate this amount to finance a stockpile of Ebola virus vaccines, once licensed, to fight future epidemics of the disease. Decisions on the allocation of vaccines from the stock will be taken by an international coordinating group (ICG) comprising WHO, UNICEF, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and Médecins sans frontières. (MSF).
“Building up a stock of thousands of Ebola vaccines is an extraordinary step forward,” said Henrietta Fore, Executive Director of UNICEF. “This is the result of the relentless and unprecedented efforts of this global partnership to fight Ebola virus disease outbreaks. We can build on this success for the global deployment of COVID-19 vaccines. “
Several other candidate vaccines against Ebola virus disease, currently in different stages of development, could be included in the stockpile after receiving WHO prequalification, if their profile matches the recommendations of the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on vaccination.
Thanks to the favorable environment resulting from the Vaccine Alliance’s market shaping efforts, the number of vaccine producers increased from 5 in 2001 to 17 in 2019. As a result, essential vaccines are more affordable today. even for the poorest countries in the world. Gavi plays a vital role in improving global health security by supporting health systems and funding global stocks of vaccines against Ebola, cholera, meningococci and yellow fever.
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