Six donors are close to approving a groundbreaking $1.5bn (€960m, £756m) mechanism designed to boost the development and affordable supply of new vaccines to the developing world.

The governments of Italy, the UK, Canada, Russia and Norway, as well as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will by June agree their support for final recommendations released today on a pilot Advance Market Commitment (AMC) to supply vaccines against pneumococcal disease, which kills 1.6m people a year.