Global vaccine group Gavi has $9 billion, short of its target

By Jennifer Rigby

LONDON (Reuters) -Global vaccine group Gavi will have more than $9 billion for its work over the next five years helping to immunize the world's poorest children, including money raised at a Brussels fundraising summit, Chair Jose Manuel Barroso said on Wednesday.

The total, which the group announced at the end of the conference, was less than targeted. It included new pledges from governments and philanthropic donors, as well as money left after COVID-19 and other work.

Overall, the group was aiming to have $11.9 billion for its work from 2026 to 2030 and wanted to raise at least $9 billion at the summit without counting leftover money.

Barroso did not say how much of the $9 billion was leftover funding and how much was new commitments.

The total did not include a pledge from the United States. U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr said the United States would no longer fund Gavi and accused it of ignoring vaccine safety, without citing any evidence. In response, Gavi said safety was its primary concern. The U.S. previously gave Gavi around $300 million a year.

"Drastic cuts in aid coupled with misinformation about the safety of vaccines threaten to unwind decades of progress," World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the summit, without referring to the U.S. specifically.

Gavi said it is expecting further pledges in the coming weeks. The United Kingdom was the biggest donor, pledging $1.7 billion, followed by the Gates Foundation, which pledged $1.6 billion.

Barroso said the result was important given that other countries have followed the U.S. in cutting international aid budgets.

"We know that it is not exactly what we wanted. Let's be honest, we wanted more ambition," he said.

Gavi said it was aiming for the money to immunize a further 500 million children and save around eight million lives from deadly diseases like measles and diphtheria from 2026 to 2030. The group also said it was planning reforms, partnerships with other global health groups and cost-cutting at its headquarters in Geneva to cope with the reduced sums raised.

(Reporting by Jennifer Rigby; Editing by Leslie Adler and Cynthia Osterman)