GSK extends its price-freeze commitment to ten years for countries graduating from Gavi support

Issued: London, UK

• New extended price freeze commitment enables countries that graduate from Gavi support to continue to pay the same discounted price for GSK vaccines for a decadefrom end of GAVI support

GSK today made a new extended price freeze commitment to the governments of Gavi-eligible countries. With this offer, developing countries that graduate from Gavi support due to increased economic wealth will be able to continue to purchase vaccines against pneumonia, diarrhoea and cervical cancer at significantly discounted Gavi prices for a decade after graduation. This will help ensure sustainable vaccination programmes in developing countries in the long term. Gavi is a private-public partnership which aims to increase access to vaccination in 73 of the world’s poorest countries.

Sir Andrew Witty, CEO of GSK, said: “Over the past 15 years, Gavi has helped to protect many hundreds of millions of children in the world’s poorest countries from infectious diseases and has doubtless saved millions of lives. As long-standing supporters of Gavi, we continue to take steps to ensure we are doing what we can to increase access to vaccines. Our extended price-freeze is designed to bring vaccine price stability for graduating countries, ensuring sustainability of the Gavi model and helping more children benefit from national immunisation programmes.”

From 2016, 22 countries with growing economies will begin to graduate from Gavi support. This process allows Gavi to focus resources on the poorest countries, while enabling governments to take increasing responsibility and ownership for vaccination programmes over time. GSK was the first company to commit to maintaining its lowest prices for the graduating countries as they take this step. This enables governments to plan for financing the full cost of their immunisation programmes helping to maintain their commitment to sustainable immunisation programmes.

Ahead of the Gavi replenishment conference taking place in Berlin tomorrow, GSK also reaffirmed that if the company identifies new manufacturing efficiencies that reduce the costs of producing these vaccines, it will pass those savings on to Gavi and its donors.

Luc Debruyne, President of Vaccines, GSKsaid: “More children from the world’s poorest countries are being vaccinated against more diseases than ever before. This has been made possible by unprecedented cooperation between governments, groups such as Gavi and pharmaceutical companies. Four of every five of GSK’s vaccines are provided to developing countries at a substantial discount to western prices. We offer our lowest prices to Gavi which can be as little as a tenth of developed world prices. At these levels, we are able to just cover our costs, which is key to making our GAVI offer sustainable. We continue to look at ways to reduce production costs and any savings we make we will pass on to Gavi.”

GSK is a long-standing partner of Gavi and for many years has reserved its lowest vaccine prices for Gavi-eligible countries. In the 15 years since its formation in 2000, Gavi has helped to fund the immunisation of half a billion children in some of the world’s poorest countries, helping to avert seven million deaths and significantly reducing the incidence of many infectious diseases.

GSK is one of the largest contributors of vaccines to Gavi, supplying innovative vaccines, such as those for rotavirus, pneumococcal disease and cervical cancer, at significantly reduced prices to help accelerate access in developing countries. GSK has committed to provide more than 850 million vaccine doses that will help protect up to 300 million children in the developing world by 2024.

GSK has a long track record on taking steps to address global health challenges, for example investing in vaccine research programmes in critical diseases that affect poor countries such as malaria, tuberculosis, HIV and Ebola, and forming a groundbreaking five-year partnership with Save the Children to help save the lives of one million children.

Notes to editors:

• GSK vaccines are included in immunisation campaigns in 170 countries worldwide. In 2013, GSK delivered 862 million vaccine doses, over 80% of them for use in developing countries.
• In July 2013, GSK committed to provide an additional 240 million doses of Synflorix^TM to Gavi for use in developing countries over the next ten years, helping protect up to 80 million more children from pneumococcal diseases such as meningitis and pneumonia. This is in addition to the 480 million doses of the vaccine that GSK has already committed to Gavi through the Advance Market Commitment framework.
• GSK has committed 132 million doses of Rotarix^TM, helping protect 60 million children against rotavirus. It is estimated that more almost half a million children worldwide die of rotavirus gastroenteritis each year – the equivalent of one child per minute.¹
• GSK has made a commitment to Gavi to supply Cervarix^® as part of a long term programme to help protect girls against cervical cancer, which is a significant problem in developing countries.
• GSK has been a provider of oral polio vaccines to UNICEF for 50 years, contributing nearly 16 billion doses since the establishment of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988.
• Since 2000, many new innovative vaccines have been added to the WHO recommended extended programme of immunisation. With the support of Gavi and other partner organisations, millions of children in the world’s poorest countries have now been vaccinated against diseases such hepatitis B, measles, rubella, pneumococcal disease, rotavirus and polio.

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Cautionary statement regarding forward-looking statements
GSK cautions investors that any forward-looking statements or projections made by GSK, including those made in this announcement, are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Such factors include, but are not limited to, those described under Item 3.D 'Risk factors' in the company's Annual Report on Form 20-F for 2013.

References

1. Weekly epidemiological record, 1st February 2013. No. 5, 2013, 88, 49–64  www.who.int/wer/2013/wer8805.pdf?ua=1