With health as a human right, universal and equitable access to the vaccines and therapeutics that are essential to achieve good health are a fundamental human right.

Approval of a new pneumococcal vaccine that promises lower immunisation costs has unleashed a powerful new weapon in the fight against childhood pneumonia.

At a time when COVID-19 has got every nation – and everyone – talking corona, the debate about access to medicines has jumped to the top of the agenda. It’s a big shift. And a big opportunity.

If we assume 70% of the world’s people need to be immunised to achieve herd immunity, that means producing vaccines for more than 5 billion people. To put this into context, the global demand for vaccines totalled 3.5 billion doses in 2018.