Human and dog rabies vaccines and immunoglobulins

Overview

The World Health Organization (WHO) in collaboration with the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) convened a meeting of country representatives, manufacturers and other stakeholders at WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland on 12–13 October 2015, to discuss and develop ideas for improving the current system of procurement of quality-assured, safe and affordable dog and human rabies vaccines and rabies immunoglobulins (RIGs).

The objectives of the meeting were:

• to assemble forecasts of human and dog rabies vaccines and RIGs from specific countries;
• to understand the manufacturing capacity for rabies vaccines and RIGs, shortfalls and logistical needs;
• to obtain a shared understanding of global supply of vaccines and RIG needs or forecasts; and
• to explore bulk purchasing options for countries through WHO/UNICEF (human vaccine and RIG) and OIE/WHO (animal vaccine) mechanisms.