2023 Grunin Winner: Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance – Covax

Описание: Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance – Covax
Nominated legal team: Jelena Madir, General Counsel; Simon Duffield, Lead, Legal – Covax; Muneeza Aumir, Senior Legal Counsel; Christine Crawford, Senior Legal Counsel; Raj Bahia, Senior Legal Counsel; Harpal Dhillon, Senior Legal Counsel; Kate Fendler, Senior Legal Counsel; Laurent Gabus, Senior Legal Counsel; Joanne Hutchings, Senior Legal Counsel; Danielle Lawson, Senior Legal Counsel; Peik Makela, Senior Legal Counsel; Jack Nichols, Senior Legal Counsel; and Clinton Starghill, Senior Legal Counsel; Marion Boutemy, Senior Assistant

Supporting legal teams: Marly Didzian, Partner, Linklaters LLP; Adam Fogarty, Partner, Linklaters LLP; Marc Harvey, Partner, Linklaters LLP; Andrew Jones, Partner, Linklaters LLP; Teresa Laboucarie-Polak, Partner, Linklaters LLP; Aisling Zarraga, Partner, Linklaters LLP

The project: At an early stage of the Covid-19 pandemic, it became apparent that to end the global health crisis we not only needed Covid-19 vaccines, but we also needed to ensure that everyone in the world had access to them. This triggered global leaders to call for a solution that would accelerate the development and production of COVID-19 vaccines and guarantee rapid, fair and equitable access to them for people in all countries. That solution was Covax – the world’s largest programme for the production and distribution of Covid-19 vaccines. As the legal administrator of Covax, Gavi – the global health public-private partnership – entered into agreements with over 150 governments, guarantee arrangements with a number of countries and commercial banks, advance purchase agreements with vaccine manufacturers, procurement agreements with UNICEF and Pan American Health Organization, and a range of financing agreements with a number of multilateral development banks. Gavi’s legal team played a leading role in the launch of Covax by drafting and negotiating different agreement with high- and low-income countries, humanitarian partners, development partners and pharmaceutical companies. They created new legal, financial and insurance mechanisms to manage risks, which were critical to securing the participation of countries receiving the vaccines and from the vaccine makers.