Project targets $1.5 billion for vaccines

LECCE, Italy, June 12 (UPI) -- A $1.5 billion plan to save the world's poorest children from pneumococcal diseases was activated Friday in Lecce, Italy, international aid groups said.

Representatives of five countries and four international aid groups officially made good on commitments promised in 2007 to speed delivery of pneumococcal vaccines that kill 1.6 million people year, including an estimated 1 million children under age 5.

Italy donated $635 million, Britain $485 million, Canada $200 million, Russia $80 million, Norway $50 million and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation $50 million, Italian Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti said.

"Three and a half years is a very long time for the poor and the sick, but it is a short time to translate what is a complex and innovative idea into a concrete project," Tremonti said.

Beginning June 15, pharmaceutical companies can register their interest in developing vaccines funded by the $1.5 billion project.

The project also is supported by the World Health Organization, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization and the U.N. Children's Fund.