Pneumococcal Vaccinations Decreased During 2020

Thanks to the Pneumococcal Advance Market Commitment (AMC), children in 60 Gavi-eligible countries are being immunized against the main cause of pneumonia with pneumococcal vaccines, stated Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

The purpose of the twelfth and final Pneumococcal AMC Annual Report is to provide an update on the implementation activities for pneumococcal vaccines, including supply and procurement, country demand, and financial reporting.

This final report covers the period from January to December 2020, completing a decade of unprecedented progress in pneumococcal disease prevention, mainly fuelled by the expansion of routine immunization in Gavi countries.

A total of 139 million doses of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) were procured through the AMC in 2020, a 14% decrease from 2019.

In the second half of 2021, an appendix to this report will be issued to reflect the 2020 data scheduled to be published in July 2021, including PCV coverage achieved in 2020.

Pneumococcal vaccines prevent pneumococcal disease caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae, a bacterium with more than 90 serotypes, says the U.S. CDC. The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices vaccine recommendations is published on this webpage.

The overall likelihood of approval of Phase I pneumococcal vaccine is 16.7%, and the average probability a vaccine advances from Phase III is 75%. Pneumococcal vaccines, on average, take 8.6 years from Phase I to approval, compared to 9.0 years in the overall infectious disease space, reported ResearchAndMarkets.com in April 2021.