For those who are not familiar with Gavi, let me say a few quick words. It was set up in 2000 as an alliance of the key agencies in global health, including the WHO, the World Bank, UNICEF and the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, basically in response to an acute market failure where new vaccines were unaffordable for low-income countries.

So Gavi's mission is to save children’s lives and protect people's health by making sure that the low-income countries can have access to new vaccines As we know, vaccines are actually one of the most successful and cost-effective health investments in history, with wider benefits that accrue across lifetime. A recent study by John Hopkins University covering the 93 Gavi supported countries projected that for every dollar that was spent on immunization there are 21 dollars which are saved in healthcare cost, loss of wages and loss of productivity due to illness and death.

When we actually consider the broader social value of lives saved and people living longer and healthier lives, the return on investment in vaccines is estimated to be 54 dollars for every dollar spent. So that basically just shows how investments in vaccines are actually crucial.

So now coming to the COVID-19 pandemic which was officially declared by the WHO as a global pandemic about a year ago about this time. It has also threatened decades of progress and as a result, we see that 2020 was the worst global economic contraction in peacetime since the great depression.

It is also estimated that the direct and indirect impacts of the virus would put between 143 to 163 million more people into poverty by 2021, and reverse critical gains in health, education, and nutrition. Impacts on local and national economies as well as international trade and travel continue to result in the loss of 375 billion to the global economy a month. 

It was recognized very early that to end the pandemic, the global community would require one of the biggest and also the fastest international efforts in a decade. So at the request of the international community, Gavi along with our colleagues from WHO are driving a global coordination and financing effort that will accelerate the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines across the world which is also known as the COVAX Facility.

COVAX is under the vaccine pillar of the access to COVID-19 tools accelerator which is known as the ACT-Accelerator, which is actually a global collaboration that brings together scientists, business, donors, global health organizations to speed up an end to the pandemic through the support of vaccines, therapeutics and also diagnostics. For the COVAX Facility, it’s basically a global procurement mechanism designed to maximize the countries’ access to COVID-19 vaccines as quickly, fairly and safely as possible.

With more than 119 economies, which are now involved in the COVAX facility and that includes China which is part of the COVAX Facility as well, it collectively represents more than 90 percent of the global population that is covered by the Facility (https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/covax-explained).

So, the Facility basically proves participant’s buying power and provides government with the opportunity to benefit from a larger portfolio of promising vaccine candidates with a bigger market to provide security of demands.

As we know in normal times, from vaccines R&D to manufacturing and then to procurement, it can take ages [ed: for vaccines] to reach people. So, the facility is basically about acceleration of that. Early vaccine markets would be characterized by far greater demand than supply, therefore, driving up the cost and preventing low and lower-middle income countries from being able to access COVID-19 vaccine. Gavi has also coordinated the development and implementation of the COVAX AMC (Advance Market Commitment).

It's basically a financing instrument that supports the participation of 92 low and lower-middle income economies through both public and private contributions. The initial objective of the facility is to provide enough vaccines to protect the high risk and vulnerable population as well as frontline health workers that are necessary to end the acute phase of the pandemic.

The Allocation of the vaccines to the different countries is basically guided by the WHO allocation framework to achieve the objective of the COVAX facility, which has assembled a broad portfolio of vaccine candidates.

As of April 2021, we have secured deals with 6 vaccine manufacturers and have more to come. We are now in a position to deliver 1.3 billion doses by the end of 2021 to AMC-eligible countries and to extend coverage for exercising options on another 500 million doses.

COVAX is delivering on its commitment with Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, which became the first countries to administer COVAX-supported vaccines on the first of March 2021, which is just 83 days after the first dose was actually administered in wealthy nations in the UK. As of April 2021，COVAX has shipped more than 39 million COVID vaccines to 113 economies across the world, with more than 65 percent of all low and lower middle-income countries having already received their first delivery of these vaccines.

The supply from the first allocation round is anticipated to cover an average of 2.5 percent of the AMC population by May. This is huge progress, we are only part way there, and inequalities still remain in the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines.

So higher income countries, it’s clearly ahead in the race to vaccinate their populations. However, given the rising number of variants, the progress achieved by higher income countries will remain in jeopardy as long as the COVID-19 virus is threatening other parts of the world.

The latest study shows that if the world’s wealthiest nations are fully vaccinated while the poor nations are half vaccinated, it could drive down the global economy by about 9.2 trillion U.S. dollars, and almost half of that, which is about 4.5 trillion U.S. dollars, would be incurred in the wealthiest nations.

It just shows that vaccine equality is really at the heart of what we’re trying to do with economic recovery. So continuous improvements will definitely help shape the way of how Gavi and COVAX work with partners. As we recognize that the only way to adequately respond to the challenge of COVID-19, particularly given the onset of variants, is actually to achieve global vaccination coverage as quickly as possible.

As one of the biggest and fastest international immunization efforts in a decade, the COVAX facility will be a testament of how global organizations come together and devise a new model of working. We are incredibly grateful for the contributions and support provided by both the public and private sectors to help this initiative come to fruition. Actually, as recently as last week, we just launched the COVAX AMC investment case which presented a 2 billion funding gap to make available a total of 1.8 billion doses to AMC countries by the end of 2021 and to end the acute phase of the pandemic).

This success of the facility will not just determine how quickly we end this current crisis, but also help us prepare for the next pandemic. Because there will be the next one. The emergence of novel viruses of pandemic potential is an evolutionary certainty.

The global challenges we face today can only be solved through solidarity and international cooperation. As my colleagues have shown, no one is safe until everyone is safe. So with that, thank you very much and I definitely look forward to hearing from other colleagues on their work as well.

The speech was made at PKU GLOBAL HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT FORUM 2021 in April 2021. Please find the latest COVAX update here:  https://www.gavi.org/covax-facility

[ZHANG Li, Director, Strategic Innovation and New Investors Hub at Gavi ]