Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to support poorer countries and emerging economies to (1) secure fair vaccine prices, (2) increase coverage of vaccine availability, and (3) save more lives.

The UK is a world leader in improving global immunisation. The UK is the largest donor to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which provides immunisation support to 68 of the world’s poorest countries.

Gavi provides vaccines for 60% of the annual global birth cohort, providing it with strong purchasing power that Gavi then uses to ensure vaccines prices are affordable to low income countries. This model is extremely successful and has reduced the cost of immunising a child with three key vaccines by 17% since 2016. By advocating with vaccine manufacturers to retain affordable prices, Gavi also supports countries transitioning from its support, with every transitioned country since 2016 procuring vaccines at the same or lower price.

Gavi’s scale also enables it to increase coverage and availability of vaccines in the poorest nations. By significantly reducing vaccine prices, Gavi has reduced a principal barrier that has enabled it to support the introduction of 380 vaccines. To ensure these reach the most marginalised, Gavi’s support focuses on areas with the lowest coverage and helps develop strong health systems capable of delivering vaccines.

The effectiveness of Gavi’s model has seen 10 million lives saved from vaccine preventable diseases. In 2020, the UK will proudly host the replenishment of Gavi, providing a strong opportunity to demonstrate the effectiveness of Gavi to increase access to vaccinations and save lives in the world’s poorest nations.