Delivering vaccines for emerging infectious diseases: harnessing the power of innovative partnerships

IAVI is proud to release a new publication, Delivering vaccines for emerging infectious diseases: harnessing the power of innovative partnerships. Its contents distill discussions at a global health summit convened by IAVI and our founding donor The Rockefeller Foundation on Sept. 16, 2022. The summit brought together experts and stakeholders to examine 25 years of outbreak response and vaccine development and to identify critical gaps and opportunities in the areas of R&D, equitable access, and financing. The collective reflections captured in this white paper suggest that the science and funding galvanized to respond to recent outbreaks (2022 Sudan Ebolavirus, COVID-19 pandemic, and 2014-16 West African Ebola) provide important starting models that warrant further refinement, particularly in risk mitigation.

While an ideal model doesn’t yet exist, multisector partnerships that harness and encourage scientific innovation, build in access considerations early and across the product development continuum, and which are backed by sustainable and flexible funding are most likely to be successful. Such a model (or models) will need to be collectively nurtured in the long term to share the significant risks currently being absorbed by product developers. Without centralized coordination and leadership — underpinned by strong community engagement and support — our efforts will invariably fall short, and the boom/bust cycle of emerging infectious disease (EID) vaccine development is bound to persist with grave consequences for low- and middle-income countries.

Read and share the white paper and learn more about IAVI’s EID vaccine development portfolio.