Dramatic Price Drop Gives More People Access to Pneumonia Vaccine

A supply agreement concluded between the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Serum Institute of India will save millions of children under 5 as the price for pneumonia vaccine is down by 43%, costing now $2 per dose.

“Thanks to this visionary model, we have a healthy pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) market that is producing enough vaccines to supply both rich and poor countries and, as a result, hundreds of millions of children are now protected against one of the world’s deadliest diseases,” says Aurelia Nguyen, Gavi’s managing director for vaccines and sustainability.

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, was part of the negotiation for a reduction of the PCV vaccine price. The organization now has 10 years of 20 million annual doses to distribute to the 58 countries it supports.