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* Money would fund GAVI's programmes from 2016 to 2020
* GAVI works with drugmakers to cut vaccine costs for poor
* 1.5 mln children a year die of vaccine-preventable disease
By Kate Kelland
LONDON, May 20 (Reuters) - The GAVI global vaccines allianceissued a plea on Tuesday for $7.5 billion to help immuniseanother 300 million children against life-threatening diseasesbetween 2016 and 2020 and save up to 6 million more lives.
GAVI said the additional investments, which it hopes to getmainly from global health philanthropists and the governments ofdeveloped nations, could double the total number of lives savedthrough GAVI-supported vaccines to an estimated 12 million.
"We are faced with an historic opportunity to supportcountries to build sustainable immunisation programmes that willprotect entire generations of children," the group's chairman,Dagfinn Hoybraten, said in a statement.
"The investments we all make now can ensure the equivalentof two children every second will be reached with GAVI-supportedvaccines for five years and secure the future health andeconomic prosperity of all our children in years to come."
GAVI, which is backed by the Bill & Melinda GatesFoundation, the World Health Organisation (WHO), the World Bank,UNICEF, donor governments and others, funds immunisationprograms for poor nations that cannot afford to buy vaccines atrich-world prices.
The group targets common but deadly diseases such aspneumonia, diarrhoea and cervical cancer and says it has alreadysaved around 6 million lives since its launch in 2000.
Seth Berkley, GAVI's chief executive, told Reuters that ifthe alliance were to achieve its target of an extra $7.5billion, this would be added to $2 billion already in hand for the 2016 to 2020 period.
This is around 15 percent more than GAVI has for the currentfive-year period, he said, but an acceleration is necessarybecause there are still around 1.5 million children who die eachyear of vaccine-preventable diseases.
Berkley said the economic benefits of fully funded,sustainable vaccine programmes in poorer countries would resultin between $80 and $100 billion in gains, partly by cutting thecosts of treating illness, and increasing populationproductivity by keeping people alive and well into adulthood.
GAVI uses its private and government donors' backing tonegotiate with pharmaceutical firms such as GlaxoSmithKline, Merck and Pfizer to bring down vaccineprices for the poor. It then works with partners to bulk-buy anddeliver them to countries whose populations need them most.
The group says its influence on the vaccines market so farhas led to a 37 percent decrease in the cost for a GAVI-eligiblecountry to vaccinate a child with pentavalent, pneumococcal androtavirus vaccines since 2010. (Editing by Alison Williams)
