Healthy Skepticism Library item: 15827
Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.
Publication type: news
Jack A.
Novartis rejects call for vaccine donations
The Financial Times.com 2009 Jun 14
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/875066ae-5902-11de-80b3-00144feabdc0.html
Full text:
Novartis, the Swiss pharmaceuticals group, defied the World Health Organisation and some of its corporate peers by ruling out a donation to the poor of vaccines to counter the latest flu pandemic, and saying developing nations or donor nations should cover the costs.
Daniel Vasella, Novartis chief executive, told the Financial Times that he would consider offering discounted pricing to low-income nations, but unlike other drug companies, including GlaxoSmithKline, would not offer vaccines for free. He said: “If you want to make production sustainable, you have to create financial incentives.”
His comments were a rebuff to Margaret Chan, WHO director-general, who last week said the H1N1 swine flu outbreak had become a pandemic. She has called on vaccine makers to show “solidarity” in offering vaccines to the poor.
The remarks highlight divisions in the industry. GSK has pledged 50m doses of its flu vaccine to the poor, and some smaller producers in developing countries say they will earmark 10 per cent of their production for free distribution.
Mr Vasella said a “significant” proportion of Novartis’s H1N1 stock had been reserved by governments, raising the prospect of shortages even among richer nations that can afford to purchase vaccines he estimated would cost $10-$15 (£6-£9) a dose, and more for smaller orders and those placed later.
Meanwhile, the US government has already purchased $289m of H1N1 vaccines from Novartis, although it has yet formally to approve the product.
Novartis owns Chiron, the US vaccine company that on Friday claimed it was the first producer to complete trial H1N1 vaccine batches using an accelerated cell-based technique rather than conventional production in eggs.
