GlaxoSmithKline praises new GAVI Alliance healthcare scheme

GlaxoSmithKline has praised the decision of the GAVI Alliance to provide funding for a new scheme that will aim to improve healthcare standards in the world's poorest countries.

The organisation recently announced it will be offering financial support for the provision of cervical cancer immunisation programmes and rubella vaccination, through the opening of new funding windows for drug development.

As a result of this initiative, up to two million women and girls in nine developing nations could be offered protection from cervical cancer by 2015, as well as 588 million children at risk of rubella.

GlaxoSmithKline is a long-term partner of the GAVI Alliance and supplies more than 70 percent of its total vaccine volumes to poorer nations.

Jean Stephenne, chairman of GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, said: "GAVI's impact on global public health cannot be overestimated … The introduction of vaccines which target cervical cancer will build on this success, helping to prevent this terrible disease."

This comes after the organisation welcomed the European Commission's new collaborative approach to combating antibiotic resistance earlier this month.