Africa: NGO Questions Role of Drugs Companies in Vaccine Deal

Health-e (Cape Town)

Anso Thom

3 March 2011

Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) has questioned why two drugs companies are to receive millions of dollars in a vaccine deal being branded as a huge breakthrough for poor countries.

The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) announced last month that thousands of infants in Kenya would receive their first shots against pneumococcal diseases as part of a global roll-out of vaccines targeting the world’s biggest child killer – pneumonia.

GAVI revealed at the time that 19 developing countries (excluding South Africa) would have access to the vaccine within a year and if the alliance secures further funding, to more than 40 countries by 2015.

However, MSF revealed that GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Pfizer/Wyeth were receiving a significant subsidy, funded by donor governments, in order to secure their participation in the scheme.

The companies have each agreed to sell 30 million doses annually for 10 years in exchange for U$3.50 per dose, plus a total subsidy of U$225-million for each company.

However, MSF said the deal was shortchanging emerging country suppliers who have said they could sell similar pneumococcal vaccine products at U$2 per dose, more than 40% less that the price currently paid by GAVI. This has seen two of the largest pharmaceutical companies being given “un-needed” subsidies while very little or nothing has been done to speed up the development of competing products.

There was a danger that the 16 countries, that will no longer be eligible to receive GAVI support starting in 2015, would be unable to afford the vaccine preventing children from receiving it.

“It is great news that children in developing countries will finally be protected against pneumococcal diseases by gettign this vaccine. But it’s very disappointing that the prices agreed with two big pharma countries will be too high for countries to afford when donor support ends. Prices need to come down so that as many children as possible can benefit from this vaccine,” said Dr Tido von Schoen-Angerer, Executive Director of the MSF Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines.

Commenting on the MSF concerns, GAVI spokesperson Ariane Leroy said they had been able to secure a 90% reduction compared to the European Union and United States.

However, MSF spokesperson Daniel Berman said that the problem was that this was a good deal from drugs companies’ perspective, but not from donors or countries.

He also said that a version of the vaccine has been available to rich countries for many years, but that the production of older, successful and more affordable version was halted by Pfizer/Wyeth when it decided to go for one global product.

Despite Leroy’s contention that the drug companies were entitled to the U$225-million subsidy as part of their agreeement to sell the 30 million doses, Berman said the subsidy was unnecessary.

“They are inadvertently slowing competition by locking in the two big pharma companies. This is especially grave for countries like South Africa. True competition would lead to a lower price in the marketplace,” said Berman.

He questioned how countries like South Africa and Thailand were supposed to lower their prices if GAVI reinforced the dominant US/European companies.

These countries do not have access to the GAVI prices, hampering new players from coming into the market.

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