Hillary's Vaccine Shortage
Daily Policy Digest
Health Issues / Moving Toward Universal Coverage
Monday, August 18, 2003
Everyone knows America's vaccine industry is in serious trouble, with an ever dwindling number of producers and recent severe vaccine shortages. What everyone also should know is that the National Academy of Science's Institute of Medicine has now pinned much of the blame on the government vaccine-buying program promoted by former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The panel of doctors and economists issuing a report on vaccines last week identified as a fundamental cause of the problem the fact that the government purchases 55 percent of the childhood vaccine market at forced discount prices. The result has been "declining financial incentives to develop and produce vaccines."
The root of this government role goes back to August 1993, when Congress passed Clinton's Vaccines for Children program. The plan, promoted by the Children's Defense Fund, was to use federal power to ensure universal immunization. So the government agreed to purchase a third of the national vaccine supply (the President and Mrs. Clinton had pushed for 100 percent) at a forced discount of half price, then distribute it to doctors to deliver to the poor and the un- and under-insured. As a result:
Where 30 years ago, 25 companies produced vaccines for the U.S. market., today only five remain, and there is only one producer for a number of critical shots.
Recent years have brought shortages of numerous vaccines, including those for whooping cough, diphtheria and chicken pox.
The Institute panel in effect said that one of Senator Clinton's pet projects is a bust. As Congress considers Medicare legislation that could do similar harm to prescription drug makers, the vaccine tale is a timely alarm, says the Journal.
Source: Editorial, "Hillary's Vaccine Shortage," Wall Street Journal, August 15, 2003; based on Committee on the Evaluation of Vaccine Purchase Financing in the United States, "Financing Vaccines in the 21st Century: Assuring Access and Availability," Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, August 4, 2003.
ncpa.org
The GAO also warned that vaccine supplies are vulnerable because so few companies make vaccines for the U.S. market. A single manufacturer provides five of the eight vaccines that the CDC recommends for children. With so few manufacturers, a single company’s exit from the market can cause a shortage quickly (U.S. GAO 2002, 19–20).5 The same point had been made earlier by Infectious Disease News, March 2002, when it reported, “it would take only a single manufacturer to discontinue production to lose the vaccine supply for MMR, [chicken pox], inactivated polio and [meningitis]” (“How to Shore Up”).
Just four companies make virtually all childhood vaccines used in the United States.: Merck & Company (United States), Wyeth Pharmaceuticals (United States), Aventis Pasteur (France), and GlaxoSmithKline (United Kingdom). Only two companies still make injectable influenza vaccine for the U.S. market: Aventis Pasteur and Medeva Pharma (United Kingdom, known as Evans Vaccines in the United States).
It further says:
the recent shortages stem from a number of factors including: 1) the withdrawal from the market of one manufacturer, 2) difficulties in the manufacturing process, 3) temporary shutdowns of facilities for upgrades or maintenance, or to correct manufacturing deficiencies observed by the manufacturer or FDA during inspections, and 4) other factors, such as transition to thimerosal-free vaccine formulations. (U.S. Senate 2002a, 1)
Why would all other vaccine manufacturers withdraw from the market? Self protection: Fear of John Edwards and his friends - # 4 skirts this; the plaintiffs bar wants to claim (contrary to sound medical evidence) that miniscule amounts of mercury used as a preservative cause autism etc. Outdated manufacturing processes: the FDA resists new methods of manufacture; the current process was developed in the middle of the twentieth century. They are jus bad people: I am sure the left would like us to believe this. Responsibility: the trial bar also sues if they don't produce enough profits, or any other stockholder liability issue: note that the owners pay themselves, and turn over huge piles of cash to lawyers.
All of this ignores the fact that the US government buys over half of the supply at forced discounts of 50%. Hillary's If you had to work half of each day for half pay, would you start looking for other work? Thanks for you honesty.
Hillary's Childhood Immunization Initiative Act of 1993 is the root cause of the profit squeeze on Vaccine makers. When there a little or no profits, the risk of legal action eliminates the small possibility of profit. Stockholders do seem to expect their investment to return profits.
independent.org |
