Nations Launch $1.5B Vaccine Program

ROME (AP) -- Five nations pledged $1.5 billion for a program encouraging drug companies to develop vaccines to help prevent pneumonia and meningitis, in hopes of saving at least 5.4 million children in the world's poorest countries by 2030.

The pilot project, launched Friday in Rome, is part of a wider effort to tackle deadly diseases in Asia, Africa and South America.

With funding from Italy, Canada, Norway, Russia and Britain, the plan targets pneumococcal disease, a major cause of pneumonia and meningitis, killing 1.6 million people every year.

"The key aim is to ensure there is secure funding for the vaccines urgently needed in the poorest countries, where thousands of children die every day from diseases that can be prevented," said a statement from World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, who attended Friday's launch ceremony.

Pope Benedict XVI praised the plan's goal of developing vaccines as "inspired by the spirit of human solidarity, which our world needs in order to overcome every form of selfishness and to foster the peaceful coexistence of peoples."

"Such vaccines are urgently needed to prevent millions of human beings, including countless children, from dying each year from infectious diseases," the pontiff said, after meeting at the Vatican with the finance ministers from participating countries, as well as with others including Wolfowitz and Queen Rania of Jordan.

Vaccines are bought only if they meet standards of efficacy, safety and cost-effectiveness established by the GAVI Alliance -- formerly known as the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization -- the World Bank and an assessment committee.

Participating vaccine companies must agree to sell the new vaccine at a price that cash-strapped governments in Africa, Asia and South America can afford.

Any manufacturer may apply for funding.

After seven to 10 years, AMC funding will phase out, and vaccine makers are expected to continue supplying the developing world with their products, at a discounted price, set during the process.

"The industry is not willing to invest resources to develop products that too few people have money to buy," Italian Economy Minister Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa told the pope. "Public funding of research is not enough to fill the gap."

Associated Press writer Daniela Petroff in Vatican City contributed to this story.