Advocating for Global Access to Vaccines in Developing Countries

Rebecca Ejifoma
Pfizer has restated its commitment to increase access to immunisations in countries 

that carry the greatest proportion of global burden of pneumococcal disease, which can help
prevent diseases and save lives.

In support of this commitment and to help address the practical constraints experienced 

by health workers operating in many Gavi countries, Pfizer developed
Prevenar 13 in the Multi-Dose Vial-MDV presentation (four doses per vial).

It says this new presentation will significantly help reduce storage requirements and 

shipping costs in
communities with health systems that are still developing. In April 2016,

 the MDV presentation received a positive opinion from the Committee for Medicinal 

Products
for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Subsequently the MDV 

was pre-qualified by the WHO last July.

This January, Pfizer launched the new multi-dose vial- MDV which was prequalified 

in accordance  with WHO’s

‘open container policy.’ With its ‘open container’ attributes, it allows for the fourth
dose to be used for up to 28 days after the first dose in drawn and providing the
recommended cold storage requirements have been met.

To ensure the efficient use of the multi-dose vial, Pfizer is supporting Gavi countries 

with a refresher training of
trainers program on a variety of immunisation topics including the proper handling of

 multidose vials with open
container policy. Pfizer partnered with AMP Services, an organization dedicated to providing the 

tools to promote preventive
medicine and public health worldwide, to execute the training of trainers’ sessions in
16 countries in 2017.

During the first four months of launch, 15 countries received the new MDV and nine of these have completed 

the training of trainers’ programmes. These training sessions were well-received by the national
and regional trainers. Georgiana Golodnius, Training Project Manager of AMP Services said: “We developed
training materials that are easy to use for health workers and allow for interactive
learning process at all levels.In the countries where we have implemented training of the trainers, 97.3% of the

participants think the developed training tools are useful and relevant.”

“Indeed we learnt a lot from the training and I feel the knowledge gained will be used to train other health workers 

in the
country” Mr Mwagomba, Malawi. 

Pfizer, also, assured that it is committed to constant innovation and development to
ensure that the challenges many face throughout the world- geographical,
economical and operational - can and will be met.