UNICEF to lead global procurement, supply of COVID-19 vaccines

In what is most likely the world's largest and quickest ever procedure of its kind, UNICEF has announced that it will be leading the procurement and offer of coronavirus vaccines to make sure that all countries have safe, fast and equitable usage of initial doses if they are available.

The US Children's Fund (UNICEF) is the world's major single vaccine buyer, procuring a lot more than 2 billion doses of varied vaccines annually for routine immunisation and outbreak response on behalf of nearly 100 countries.

With several vaccine prospects showing promise, the UN agency, in collaboration with the Revolving Fund of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), will lead efforts to procure and offer doses of COVID-19 vaccines with respect to the COVAX Global Vaccines Facility for 92 low and lower middle-income countries, whose vaccine purchases will be supported by the mechanism.

UNICEF will also serve as procurement coordinator to aid purchases by 80 higher-income economies, that have expressed their intent to take part in the COVAX Facility and would finance the vaccines from their own budgets, it said.

The vaccine procurement and distribution effort, involving over 170 economies, has the potential to become the world's largest and fastest ever procedure of its kind.

"That is an all-hands on deck partnership between governments, manufacturers and multilateral partners to continue the high-stakes fight the COVID-19 pandemic," UNICEF executive director Henrietta Fore said.

"In our collective quest for a vaccine, UNICEF is leveraging its unique strengths in vaccine supply to be sure that countries have safe, fast and equitable access to the initial doses if they are available," she said.

UNICEF will undertake these efforts in close collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), Gavi the Vaccine Alliance, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), PAHO, the World Bank, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and other partners. The COVAX Facility is available to all countries to make certain that no country is left without access to a future COVID-19 vaccine.

About 28 manufacturers have shared their annual production plans for COVID-19 vaccines - through 2023 - with UNICEF, which said in a market assessment that the drug makers were willing to collectively produce "unprecedented quantities" of vaccines over the coming 1-2 years.

However, manufacturers signalled that investments to aid such large-scale production of doses would be highly reliant on, among other things, whether clinical trials were successful, advance purchase agreements were set up, funding was confirmed, and regulatory and registration pathways were streamlined.

UNICEF said a key next step will be ensuring self-financing economies sign up for the COVAX Facility by September 18, which allows COVAX to support early, at-risk investments in increasing manufacturing capacity on a wide scale.

"UNICEF has been critical partner in Gavi's success during the last 2 decades," Gavi chief executive officer Seth Berkley said.

Over the twenty years, Gavi has already reached over 760 million children with life-saving vaccines, stopping a lot more than 13 million deaths.

"(UNICEF) helped us reach over fifty percent the world's population with life-saving vaccines." Berkley said.

"This expertise and experience will be important in ensuring that COVAX - as a global effort to procure and deliver effective and safe COVID-19 vaccines, on an accelerated timeframe and at unprecedented scale - can protect the most at-risk, wherever they might be in the world," he said.

"Together we are able to work to end the acute stage of this pandemic, including its devastating effect on individuals, communities, and economies," Berkley added.

The COVAX Global Vaccines Facility may be the vaccine pillar of the ACT-Accelerator, an initiative launched in April to increase development of medicines to take care of COVID-19 and make them available to people everywhere.

It really is operated by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; CEPI, and WHO, alongside multinational and developing country vaccine manufacturers.

The facility works to make sure as much countries as possible cooperate to pool development, procurement and allocation of any COVID-19 vaccines.