PATH, www.path.org an international nonprofit organization helps to improve health especially among women and children by accelerating innovation across five platforms that includes vaccines, drugs, diagnostics, device, and system and service innovations.
PATH has just launched the “Center for Vaccine Innovation and Access” funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation www.gatesfoundation.org to provide lifesaving vaccines for the most vulnerable children and communities around the world.
Steve Davis reports, “The new center will bring together experts across all aspects of vaccine development and delivery and enable PATH to work even more effectively with a wide range of vaccine development funders, health officials, regulators, and pharmaceutical and device manufacturers to make lifesaving vaccines available. It will also enable us to respond more effectively to new and rapidly evolving threats such as the recent Ebola and Zika outbreaks.”
PATH has led or managed numerous global partnerships on vaccines and immunization including the Meningitis Vaccine Project. PATH and GlaxoSmithKline collaborated on the development and testing of the RTS, S malaria vaccine candidate. In January 2016, the RTS, S was recommended for pilot implementations in young children in sub-Saharan Africa.
PATH has also worked in partnership to develop the vaccine vial monitor, which shows when a vaccine has exceeded a safe temperature. More than 5 billion vial monitors are in use worldwide. UNICEF and WHO have estimated that the use of vaccine vial monitors on basic vaccines alone, saves about $14 million per year by preventing the discard of undamaged vaccines.