GAVI Alliance secures deal to purchase rotavirus vaccines from GlaxoSmithKline, Merck

The GAVI Alliance "has struck a deal for bulk buying rotavirus shots from GlaxoSmithKline and Merck, which cuts the price by two-thirds and will allow poorer countries access to them at around $5 per course," Reuters reports. The vaccines "combat the main cause of diarrhea -- the second-largest killer of children under the age of five worldwide," according to the news agency. GAVI "said on Tuesday its cut-price deal would allow it 'to respond to ever-increasing demand from developing countries' and provide the shots this year for three million children in eight poor countries," working toward immunizing more than 70 million children in 30 million countries by 2016, Reuters notes (Kelland, 4/10). According to a GAVI press release, "This price drop is the result of an acceleration of GAVI's market shaping activities and discussions with manufacturers carried out together with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Supply Division of UNICEF, key Alliance partners" (4/10).