Editorial, opinion pieces respond to GAVI pledging conference

Editorials and opinion pieces are responding to the GAVI Alliance pledging conference, which raised $4.3 billion for childhood vaccinations. The following is a summary of some of those pieces:

• Financial Times: Boosting vaccines: The editorial calls on GAVI to review its governance and do more to help reduce the price of vaccines, and says developing countries should monitor programs for corruption and waste and provide greater "co-funding" of GAVI vaccines. "Donors, recipients and GAVI alike should take seriously next year's 'accountability conference' to assess progress, drawn on independent expertise, and think wisely about how best to spend the money now pledged to save lives" (6/13).
• TIME's "Healthland": Why the London Vaccine Summit Is a Triumph for Global Health: Columnist Bryan Walsh writes, "If vaccines are really going to be distributed to every part of the world that needs them, they'll need to get cheaper - and as one of the biggest purchasers of vaccines in the world, GAVI could push for lower prices. But that doesn't change the essential fact that the developed world should do all it can to ensure that vaccination really does become universal, rather than just the province of those who have the luxury of not needing them" (6/13).
• Guardian's "Poverty Matters Blog": Vaccines need to reach the poor in middle-income countries too: Amanda Glassman, director of Global Health Policy at the Center for Global Development, and Andy Sumner, a research fellow at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex and a visiting fellow at CGD, say "there are good reasons to invest in vaccination" in middle-income countries (MICs). Instead of phasing MICs out of GAVI funding, the alliance "could develop targeted engagement with MICs," they write (6/13).
• Mirror: Are big drug firms cashing in on vaccine aid billions?: "The relationship between GAVI and the big Western companies is too cosy," Daniel Berman of Medecins Sans Frontieres writes, adding, "The fact is, GAVI needs to look at more affordable vaccines - not simply bawl for more cash. Of course, governments need to support GAVI but it should be conditional on GAVI using its buying power to push for adapted products" (6/13).