Description: A Product Development Partnership (PDP) focused on vaccines for children, which pools the demand of poorer countries and is financed partly through donor funding and partly through recipient country contributions.
Start date: Launched in 2000.
Status: Operational.
GAVI is a public private partnership for the procurement and distribution of vaccines.1 It pools donor funds, money raised by IFFIm (International Finance Facility for Immunisation) via donor-backed bonds, and developing country contributions, and then uses this money to purchase and deliver vaccines.2
GAVI represents over 60 developing countries, and acts to pool their demand and represent this to drugs companies. This incentivises drugs companies to develop vaccines. GAVI then funds the purchase and delivery of these vaccines by developing country actors.3
Scope: GAVI covers vaccines only, and does not directly fund R&D.
Access: GAVI increases access via funding the purchase and distribution of drugs. This also incentivises distribution.
Innovation: Incentives are not directly linked to health impact, although GAVI countries are developing economies and so it is likely that GAVI does have a positive impact through incentivising otherwise neglected research.
Efficiency: GAVI is funded by donors and by money raised on the capital markets, and so is fairly efficient. GAVI does not have in-country staff or manage the delivery of vaccines itself.4 This makes it more cost-effective as it avoids duplication. GAVI’s funding model is not market-based, in that it does not create competition in manufacture and sale.
Governability: GAVI requires a governance system to prioritise between vaccines.
Political Feasibility: GAVI has wide political support.
GAVI is partly funded through the IFFIm. This sells donor-backed bonds on the capital market to raise money for GAVI. Other sources of funding are direct matching by DFID and the Gates foundation, developing country contributions, and other direct funding.5
Alongside the IFFim, there are a number of other proposals which involve donor-backed bond funding.
The PDF-FF (Product Development Partnership - Financing Facility) proposes a donor-backed bond funding system for PDPs. It is more comprehensive than IFFIm, as it would include the selection of which PDPs to fund, whereas the IFFIm simply channels all money to GAVI.6
The IRFF - Industry R&D Facilitation Fund is similar to the PDF-FF. It would commit to reimbursing a certain proportion of the expenses of PDPs (say 80%) using bond-backed financing.7
GAVI is partially funded through contributions from developing countries. This is similar to the Fund for research in Neglected Tropical Diseases (FRiND) funding model of contributions from countries without the capacity for portfolio management.
PDPs tend to be fairly composite in approach. This is true of GAVI, which operates the pneumococcal Advanced Market Commitment for Pneumococcal Vaccines (AMC) as well as providing a more general incentive to vaccine developers, through directly purchasing vaccines.
Traditional PDPs tend to fund research directly, unlike GAVI. This makes them especially good at funding basic research, and popular with researchers. It also means they are less efficient, as unsuccessful research is funded and they do not provide incentives to research cost-effectively. Moreover, the discoveries made through PDPs are then often patented, such that the public pays twice.8
Other examples of PDPs include the 2004 agreement between the International Partnership for Microbicides and Tibotec Pharmaceuticals, Aeras Global Tuberculosis Vaccine Foundation, American Nitrox Divers International (ANDI), CD4 Initiative, Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative, Dengue Vaccine Initiative (DVI), European Vaccine Initiative (EVI), Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND), Global Dengue & Aedes-Transmitted Diseases Consortium (GDAC), Human Hookworm Vaccine Initiative, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (AIVI), Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI), Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), International Partnership for Microbicides, Institute for One World Health (iOWH ), Innovation Vector Control Consortium (IVCC), International Vaccine Institute (IVI), Lygature, Malaria Vaccine Initiative, Meningitis Vaccine Project, Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), PATH, Pediatric Dengue Vaccine Initiative (PDVI), TB Alliance, TB Vaccine Initiative (TBVI), TI Pharma, WHO’s Tropical Disease Research.
Targeted at:
Vaccine developers
Developing countries
Donors (governments and philanthropies)
Stakeholders on board:
Permanent members of the board:
WHO
UNICEF
World Bank
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
GAVI website: “Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.” Accessed July 10, 2017. http://www.gavi.org/.
WHO factsheet: “GAVI Alliance Factsheet,” n.d. http://www.who.int/phi/documents/gavi_alliance.pdf.
More GAVI information:
“Gavi’s Business Model.” Accessed July 10, 2017. http://www.gavi.org/about/gavis-business-model/.
“WHO | Follow-up of the Report of the Consultative Expert Working Group on Research and Development:” Accessed July 10, 2017. http://www.who.int/phi/documents/CEWG-WP/en/.
“Gavi Progress Reports.” Accessed July 10, 2017. http://www.gavi.org/results/gavi-progress-reports/.
About IFFIm: “Overview - ABOUT IFFIm - International Finance Facility for Immunisation.” Accessed July 10, 2017. http://www.iffim.org/About/Overview/.
