Kunming, 30th October 2018 – Vaccine manufacturers from emerging countries convened in Kunming, China, to consider vaccine industry partnerships to help advance global health initiatives.
A.Oswald interviewed Bill Gates (by recorded video), reflecting on achievements of the first decade of vaccines. Since the 90s annual child mortality decreased from over 11 million to now just around 5 million. In saving children’s lives there is nothing as phenomenal as vaccines and the vaccine industry, said Mr. Gates.
In this context ensuring simple procurement practices and guaranteed supply, avoiding fragmentation, working on policies and technical advice for countries should help drive global and regional vaccines uptake, as well as stockpiles, increasing access to vaccines for everyone. In general, some redundancy in manufacturing is needed to ensure economies-of-scale and sustainable global supply capacity, if one plant goes offline.
It is fantastic that DCVMN companies are looking at new “state of the art” manufacturing technologies. We are very committed to a strong dialogue, and willing to share risks that can make a difference to global health. Bill Gates concluded that he is looking forward to the partnerships we can have over the next decade.
