At the WEF in Davos on January 29, 2010 Bill and Melinda Gates pledged their foundation would commit $10 billion over the next 10 years to help research, develop and deliver vaccines for the world’s poorest countries. And so the Decade of Vaccines (DOV) was “born”. [5, 6]
“Increased vaccination could save more than 8 million children by 2020; significant funding gaps remain,
others must join the effort.”…“We must make this the decade of vaccines,” said Bill Gates.
“The foundation used a model developed by a consortium led by the Institute of International Programs at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health to project the potential impact of vaccines on childhood deaths over the next 10 years. …By significantly scaling up the delivery of life-saving vaccines in developing countries to 90 percent coverage—including new vaccines to prevent severe diarrhea and pneumonia—the model suggests that we could prevent the deaths of some 7.6 million children under 5 from 2010-2019…The new funding announced today is in addition to the $4.5 billion that the Gates Foundation has already committed to vaccine research, development and delivery to date across its entire disease portfolio since its inception.” [3, 4]
“The Gates Foundation’s commitment to vaccines is unprecedented, but just a small part of what is needed. It’s absolutely crucial that both governments and the private sector step up efforts to provide life-saving vaccines to children who need them most.” said WHO Director-General Margaret Chan
“The Gateses said that increased investment in vaccines by governments and the private sector could help developing countries dramatically reduce child mortality by the end of the decade…” 2010 marked Bill Gates’ second year of “full-time work was as co-chair of the [BMG] foundation”, along with Melinda and his father.
By December 2, 2010 global health leaders including the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) together with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) announced a collaboration to increase coordination across the international vaccine community and create a Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP). “This plan will build on the successes of current work to achieve key milestones in the discovery, development and delivery of lifesaving vaccines to the most vulnerable populations in the poorest countries over the next decade.” [1, 2]
The WHO Global Vaccine Action Plan was endorsed by the 194 Member States of the World Health Assembly in May 2012 ― is a framework to prevent millions of deaths by 2020 through more equitable access to existing vaccines for people in all communities.” [7]
In 2010 the global vaccine market was estimated at $7 billion. By re-definine new vaccine technology, the market was expected to triple to more than $20 billion by 2015, in just 5 years. “The future vaccine market will take advantage of advances in immunology, genetics, and molecular biology to address a whole new range of cancer and infectious disease targets.”