Geneva, 28 October 2020 – Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance announced today that it had signed a Statement of Intent with Sanofi and GSK to provide 200 million doses of the companies’ adjuvanted recombinant protein COVID-19 vaccine to the COVAX Facility. The non-binding statement is a critical step toward making sure doses of the vaccine, if approved and licensed, will be made available to all countries and economies participating in the COVAX Facility. 

“The signing of this statement of intent is an important step forward in our partnership, and I welcome Sanofi and GSK’s commitment to the COVAX goal of equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines,” said Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi. “Gavi is seeking to secure doses of the most promising vaccine candidates – so that the 184 participants involved in the COVAX Facility can make sure their most at-risk groups, such as healthcare workers, have rapid access to doses of a safe and effective vaccine. That is the world’s best chance to end the acute stage of this pandemic, and we encourage other vaccine manufacturers to work with us towards that shared global goal.”

Gavi is coordinating the design and implementation of the COVAX Facility, a global mechanism which seeks to procure, equitably allocate and deliver 2 billion doses of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines by the end of 2021. 92 higher-income economies have already signed up as self-financing members of the Facility, joining 92 low-and middle-income economies who will have their participation supported by the Gavi COVAX AMC.

The COVAX Facility is part of COVAX, the vaccines pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, which is co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and the World Health Organization (WHO) – working in partnership with developed and developing country vaccine manufacturers, UNICEF, the World Bank, Civil Society Organisations and others. COVAX is the only global initiative that is working with governments and manufacturers to ensure COVID-19 vaccines are available worldwide to economies of all financial means.

Notes to editors

More information on COVAX is available here.
 
A full list of self-financing participants that have submitted commitment agreements to join the COVAX Facility, as well as the 92 COVAX AMC-eligible economies, is available here.

About Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance is a public-private partnership that helps vaccinate half the world’s children against some of the world’s deadliest diseases. Since its inception in 2000, Gavi has helped to immunise a whole generation – over 822 million children – and prevented more than 14 million deaths, helping to halve child mortality in 73 developing countries. Gavi also plays a key role in improving global health security by supporting health systems as well as funding global stockpiles for Ebola, cholera, meningitis and yellow fever vaccines. After two decades of progress, Gavi is now focused on protecting the next generation and reaching the unvaccinated children still being left behind, employing innovative finance and the latest technology – from drones to biometrics – to save millions more lives, prevent outbreaks before they can spread and help countries on the road to self-sufficiency. Learn more at www.gavi.org and connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

The Vaccine Alliance brings together developing country and donor governments, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank, the vaccine industry, technical agencies, civil society, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other private sector partners. View the full list of donor governments and other leading organizations that fund Gavi’s work here.

Media Contacts

Meghana Sharafudeen
+41 79 711 5554
msharafudeen@gavi.org

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