Are you serious?

I came across a disheartening article the other day about allegations of flu vaccine price gouging that is being actively investigated by the Connecticut Attorney General. Basically, his office has received numerous complaints that vaccine manufacturers and distributers have gone back on previously negotiated vaccine prices and have increased the costs by several magnitudes (up to $100 per shot, in some cases). This is really disgusting if true. Just when I reported significant advances by GSK in producing the world's first viable malaria vaccine which will likely save millions of lives, something like this comes about.

The US and the rest of world is in the midst of a major flu pandemic that has not only strained supply lines of the novel H1N1 vaccine, but also the standard influenza vaccine; and for manufacturers/distributers to allegedly take advantage of a bad situation is beyond disappointing. I have always vouched for pharma and biotech because even though the industry is immensely profitable, the greatest advances in human health over the past century have come at the hands of such companies. However when I hear about situations like this, it really bothers me because it is just another example of a company illegally profiteering when it should be working to improve the lives of others. Let's not forget too that people actually NEED this vaccine, they can't simply say no because it is suddenly too expensive. The sad thing is that people will pay whatever the cost is because a flu vaccine can be a live saving investment. In other industries, this would be fair game for raising the price of the product, but not when lives are at stake.

I hope that the Connecticut AG finds that the allegations are only due to a select few distributers or crooked health care providers and not the manufacturers themselves, but if the pharma/biotechs are at the root of this, the law should come down hard on them.

Read more from Fierce Vaccines here (with links to other articles)


Oh, and if that isn't enough...check out this article about companies bypassing federal recommendations for H1N1 vaccination based on risk factors. This steams my clams as well...

Companies receiving flu vaccine/treatments