This Pharma Company Won't Commit To Fairly Pricing A Zika Vaccine You Helped Pay For

[Eugene]

Source: Huffington Post

POLITICS 06/09/2017 05:45 am ET

This Pharma Company Won’t Commit To Fairly Pricing A Zika Vaccine You Helped Pay For

After the “pharma bro” and EpiPen, this could be the next
big battle in drug pricing.

By Alexander C. Kaufman

Last year, as worries grew that Zika ― a mosquito-borne illness that can lead to devastating birth defects ― might spread north from Latin America, scientists working for the U.S. government got to work on a vaccine.

The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, which is part of the U.S. Department of Defense, began developing the vaccine in March 2016. In September, the Army announced that it had enlisted Sanofi Pasteur, a division of the Paris-based pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, as its research partner. Sanofi was awarded a $43 million grant to conduct a second phase of trials, set to begin in early 2018. If those prove successful, the government has promised Sanofi another $130 million to conduct the third phase of trials.

But that’s not all Sanofi stands to gain if the Zika vaccine works. The Army intends to grant the company an exclusive license to sell the vaccine in the U.S., according to a notice filed in the Federal Register in December.

That arrangement has consumer watchdogs and U.S. lawmakers, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), raising the alarm. Millions of Americans of reproductive age could need this vaccine to protect against a virus that can spread through sex and cause major birth defects in the children of infected women. And Sanofi ― a company that has previously been accused of jacking up drug prices for American customers ― would be the one setting the cost of this much-anticipated vaccine.

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Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/zika-vaccine-sanofi_us_59373298e4b0ce1e7408b9ca

[Stargazer99]

2. I believe it is time to start getting rid of pharma

[TheDebbieDee]

3. A progressive government would keep control

Of their drug patents and contract the manufacture, sales and distribution of these meds to the consumer/taxpayer at slightly above costs. But it would be simpler if our Congressmen and Senators would just do their jobs and REGULATE the US pharmaceutical industry...

[Warpy]

4. We pay for most drug R&D through NIH grants to universities

What drug companies do is the large scale testing. Since many drugs don't make it through that phase, the companies are taking a risk on any drug they try to bring to market.

Having said that, the present management of MBA types who are using new drugs and vaccines to shake down the public should be illegal. A patent on a new drug or vaccine is granted for 17 years, which should be long enough to recoup the expenses incurred in testing, manufacture, and initial marketing. Extortionate pricing should never be part of that.

We need a law covering that. A Republican Congress won't do it.