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Welcome to the second episode in our series exploring issues related to COVID-19 vaccines in our region, as we plan Australia's $500 million Regional Vaccine Access and Health Security Initiative.\\xa0

In the week before the Global Health Security Agenda Ministerial Meetings in November this year, the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security hosted a side event on COVID-19 vaccine financing. The Centre represents Australia as one of the leads on the Sustainable Financing for Preparedness Action Package.\\xa0

Why this side event on vaccine financing? Well, when safe and effective vaccines for COVID do become available, they will be needed for both preparedness and response. There might be sufficient funding available in the short term, but not enough vaccines to go around. In the medium term, we might have the reverse problem, insufficient funding, and too many COVID-19 vaccines. So the purpose of this event was to bring together some key partners in vaccine financing.\\xa0

There are already several mechanisms established, including the COVAX Facility, and recent announcements from the multilateral development banks for vaccine financing. In this space, we see opportunity, and as always, risk. So we brought together six panelists from around the world to discuss what successful coordination looks like, with our principal goal being that developing countries get equitable, affordable and timely access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines.\\xa0

We heard from Aparnaa Somanathan, the Practice Manager for Health, Nutrition and Population for the East Asia Pacific Region at the World Bank. Patrick Osewe, Chief of the Health Sector Group at the Asian Development Bank, and Saul Walker, the Deputy Director for Vaccines, Therapeutics and Diagnostics at the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office. Santiago Cornejo from Gavi has recently been appointed as the Director of the Country Engagement for the Office of the COVAX Facility. And for a pharmaceutical industry perspective, we were joined by Adrian Thomas, Global Vice President of Global Health at Johnson and Johnson.

We are pleased to bring you the highlights of our hour long discussion. \\xa0

For more information about the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, visit our website https://indopacifichealthsecurity.dfat.gov.au.

Connect with us on Twitter via @CentreHealthSec and @AusAmbRHS.

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