The GAVI Alliance Board on Tuesday announced it has appointed Seth Berkley, founder, president and CEO of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), as the new CEO of the GAVI Alliance, Pharmabiz.com reports (3/9). "The GAVI Board is delighted to have attracted such a highly qualified and charismatic individual as Dr. Berkley," GAVI Board Chair Dagfinn Høybråten said in a GAVI press release, adding, "Dr. Berkley is an experienced leader in global public health with strong advocacy skills and is highly motivated to making vaccines available for all children. I am confident that, with Dr. Berkley as the CEO, the Alliance will further increase its crucial role in providing cost effective immunization for the world's disadvantaged" (3/8). In an interview with Science magazine's blog "ScienceInsider," Berkley, who will begin in August, said, "Right now, the world is at the highest immunization rates that it's ever been at, and there's no reason we can't get these new vaccines to more people. That needs to be the goal. We also need to finish the polio eradication agenda and see that development of vaccines for the next generation moves on" (Cohen, 3/8).

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