GAVI financing to allow for immediate funds for next pandemic

Global vaccine alliance GAVI has set up financial instruments that will allow the group to immediately access pledged donor funding if it needs to buy vaccines for future pandemics, Chief Executive Seth Berkley told Reuters.
Berkley said that in 2020 and 2021, GAVI was limited in its ability to buy COVID-19 vaccines because even though donors had committed $2.4 billion, the vaccine alliance only had $400 million in cash on hand.
“The idea would be to have enough to jumpstart it,” Berkley said. “We’ve now put in a series of really interesting instruments. Some here in the U.S., some in Europe, that allow us to front-load donor funding… we can then go ahead and make those commitments and start spending, knowing that those donors’ funds will come.”