For the first time, UNICEF is publicising what drug manufacturers charge it for vaccines, with the world’s biggest purchaser of life-saving immunisations hoping to set off a price war in the face of rising costs.

Posting what it actually paid individual drug manufacturers for 16 vaccines purchased over the last decade Friday, UNICEF hopes the move will reduce vaccine prices, enabling it to vaccinate more children, thus saving more lives.

A few Western pharmaceutical companies are not supporting the move, and Novartis AG and Merck selling only one of their many vaccines for children to UNICEF, declined to have their prices published.

Shanelle Hall, Director of UNICEF’s supply division said, transparency would also help in fostering a competitive, diverse supplier base, including helping UNICEF partners and governments negotiate better prices for the vaccine.

Last year, the organisation spent as much as $757 million to provide 2.5 billion doses of vaccines to 99 countries, reaching around 58% of the world’s children.

Significant disparities are visible in the price list, and more often than not, Western drug manufacturers are charging UNICEF twice as much as companies in India and Indonesia do.

A huge spread in prices among various vaccines also exists, and vaccines that have been around for some time, manufactured by multiple companies like tetanus, TB shots and oral polio vaccine, cost just a few cents per dose.

While, a combination shot against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis B and haemophilus influenza costs UNICEF $3 or more per dose, and the dual vaccine against 10 or more strains of pneumococcal disease causing ear infections and meningitis costs $3.50 a shot. Adding to the cost, some vaccines require more than one booster shot.