UNICEF said today an innovative campaign to increase the availability and accessibility of life-saving supplies for children would generate savings and cost avoidances of US$735 million for UNICEF, partners and governments between 2011 and 2015.
It said price reductions by industry, special financing
from partners and influencing markets allowed every dollar supporting
children’s health to go much further than before.
“Partners and industry bring their strengths to the
table to ensure life-saving supply items are available and affordable,” said
Shanelle Hall, Director of the UNICEF Supply Division, which is based in
Copenhagen, Denmark.
“Core to our work is establishing and sustaining
healthy markets where a broadly-based range of suppliers make high-impact
products at the quantity and quality required,” she added. “A main challenge is
to ensure that new products, such as new vaccines, are accessible to middle
income countries at more affordable prices.”
The savings and cost avoidances follow dramatic gains
in child mortality rates over the past decade. UNICEF reported in 2011 that the
number of children under the age of five years who die every year had dropped
from 12 million in 1990 to 7.6 million in 2010.
The decade-long saving campaign aims to support the
creation of sustainable markets that increase the availability of essential
supplies for the well-being of children. It includes economies of scale,
expanding the number of suppliers, price transparency, forecasting demand to
industry, ensuring steady order placement through innovative financing,
strategic order placement to encourage new entrants to markets, supporting
suppliers to meet quality standards and identifying areas for potential new
production innovation.
In line with UNICEF’s commitment to ensure healthy
markets, UNICEF last year published a list of prices that it paid for vaccines,
therapeutic food, and mosquito nets.
Pricing transparency helps inform government decisions and makes the
market more efficient.
The rotavirus vaccine, which combats one of the causes
of diarrhoea – the second largest killer of children under the age of five,
will be introduced in over 40 countries over the next five years. Special
financing from the GAVI Alliance enabled UNICEF to undertake a massive
procurement that saw the market price of US$15 per course drop to as low as the
EURO equivalent of US$4.93.
Compared to 2010 prices, rotavirus vaccine procurement
from 2011 to 2016 will save some US$498 million.
Polio has declined by 90 per cent worldwide since the
global polio eradication programme began in 1988. New formulations of oral
polio vaccine that target virulent strains of polio virus are helping to bring
remaining endemic countries much closer to zero transmission.
Concerted efforts by UNICEF and polio eradication
partners have helped keep suppliers from leaving the market too early. In 2010,
the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation committed US$310 million to support polio
vaccine procurement. This helped to drive down the price of the polio vaccine
in 2010, and will save about $60 million in 2011 and 2012.
Efficient production and competitive prices offered by
emerging market suppliers resulted in price drops for other vaccines. In the
next two years, procurement of pentavalent vaccine – a five-in-one shot that
protects children from diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B and
Haemophilus influenzae type B – will result in US$153 million saved or avoided.
Collaboration with the African Leaders Malaria
Alliance, the Global Fund, the Roll-Back Malaria Partnership, UNITAID, the UN
Special Envoy for Malaria, the UN Development Programme, USAID, and the World
Bank has transformed the mosquito net industry.
There are now 12 suppliers meeting standards
recommended by the World Health Organization for bed net quality and
effectiveness – compared to only one 10 years ago.
In 2011, the price of the most commonly procured net
dropped below $4 per unit for the first time – achieving savings of more than
US$8.6 million compared to 2010.
A forecast further reduction of prices in 2012 and in
future years will save US$15 million. Additional efforts to improve value for
money will include durability tests so prices paid are also assessed in terms
of the shelf-life of bed net so future costs can be avoided.
Ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) faced record
demand in 2011 in response to the famine crisis in the Horn of Africa – 75 per
cent of UNICEF’s supply response was nutrition assistance. Expert organisations
such as Medicines Sans Frontières and the World Food Programme enabled local
producers to meet international standards and boost supply.
In six years, the supplier base for RUTF expanded from
one to 19. Since 2010 larger suppliers have reduced their per-carton price by
up to 8 per cent.
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About UNICEF
UNICEF works in 190 countries and territories to help children survive
and thrive, from early childhood through adolescence. The world’s largest
provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and
nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and
girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS.
UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals,
businesses, foundations and governments. For more information about UNICEF and
its work visit: www.unicef.org
For further information, please contact:
Sally Sadie Singhateh, UNICEF Gambia, Tel: +220
4494786; Mobile: +220 3360083; ssinghateh@unicef.org
Joan
Howe, UNICEF Supply Division, NY, Mobile: +45 29 65 71 94 jhowe@unicef.org
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