Drugmakers, Doctors Rake in Billions Battling H1N1 Flu

[kentuck]

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/10/14-1

<snip>

Americans are still debating whether to roll up their sleeves for a swine flu shot, but companies have already figured it out: vaccines are good for business.

<(ABC News)>(ABC News)
Drug companies have sold $1.5 billion worth of swine flu shots, in addition to the $1 billion for seasonal flu they booked earlier this year. These inoculations are part of a much wider and rapidly growing $20 billion global vaccine market.

"The vaccine market is booming," says Bruce Carlson, spokesperson at market research firm Kalorama, which publishes an annual survey of the vaccine industry. "It's an enormous growth area for pharmaceuticals at a time when other areas are not doing so well," he says, noting that the pipeline for more traditional blockbuster drugs such as Lipitor and Nexium has thinned.

As always with pandemic flus, taxpayers are footing the $1.5 billion check for the 250 million swine flu vaccines that the government has ordered so far and will be distributing free to doctors, pharmacies and schools. In addition, Congress has set aside more than $10 billion this year to research flu viruses, monitor H1N1's progress and educate the public about prevention.

Drug makers pocket most of the revenues from flu sales, with Sanofi-Pasteur, Glaxo Smith Kline and Novartis cornering most of the market. But it's not just drug makers who stand to benefit. Doctors collect copays for injecting shots and use them to cover office expenses and insurance. Pharmacies also charge co-pays or full price of about $25 to those without insurance and often make more money if patients end up shopping for other goods.

........more

[vadawg]

1. honestly, if a company can give me something that means i may not get sick

or even worse then im willing to part with some cash to get the vaccination.. having seen first hand the results from not getting vaccines im happy to pay the cash for them...

[havocmom]

22. Unless they are really GIVING it too you (no cost for shot)

You are paying for it twice.

"...taxpayers are footing the $1.5 billion check for the 250 million swine flu vaccines that the government has ordered so far and will be distributing free to doctors, pharmacies and schools."

Oh, and the manufacturers are free of any liability if the shot damages you, or anyone else. Just might have to pay 3 times if some are made ill or disabled and require state aid as a result. Such things have happened from vaccine in the past.

[vadawg]

23. well the H1N1 cost us nothing on site and the seasonal is covered by insurance

and id rather take the really small chance of vaccine problems than suffer from the illnesses they present. I laugh at the anti's who would rather we have all the diseases of the past than have vaccines....

[Myrina]

2. ... a nice boost to Rumsfeld's retirement fund ...

Mr Tamiflu and his ilk really need more government money, don't they? :(

[Deep13]

5. Huh?

I don't know what if anything Rumsfeld has to do with it, but it is pretty typical for the govt. to spend money on public health concerns.

[CanSocDem]

31. Yeh, typical....

"...the govt. to spend money on public health concerns."


It's not a "public health concern" as much as it is a mass media campaign that sounds more like a sales pitch than a "concern" for my health.

I may have felt a little under the weather for any number of reasons unrelated to a flu virus but thanks to the "campaign" they think I should feel frightened enough to cough up for a new and improved prevention tactic.

I'm not really talking about my own fears here, just using the process as an example.

[Deep13]

32. Pandemic flu is not a public health concern?

Sorry, but that is pretty ridiculous. Thousands die in this country every year from regular seasonal flu. We have no immunity (or very little) to H1N1 and because of that it has the potential to be pretty dangerous. Frankly, if the choice is parting with $30 and having a sore arm for the day is one option and spending a fortnight in bed is the other, well it isn't much of a choice.

[CanSocDem]

35. My choice is....

...to ignore your campaign. I've never felt stronger.

.

[vadawg]

36. famous fucking last words.... i hope we are not reading about these words in the future at your

memorial......

[CanSocDem]

38. Whatever works.....

...and I'll stick to this remedy, quietly and confidently, until the day I die. You are free to babble on hysterically and cough up your dwindling resources every flu season. ModernMedicineInc. needs you.

.

[vadawg]

41. lol dwindling resources.... i hate to tell you this i paid $0 to have my whole family vaccinated

thats $0. I take it if small pox or the spanish flu make a comeback you will have no problem waiting till we get ours first...

[CanSocDem]

44. Absolutely!! (eom)

[uppityperson]

46. "I'll stick to this remedy"? What remedy? nt

[uppityperson]

39. What "new and improved prevention tactic" are you talking about?

Vaccines have been around for years.

[CanSocDem]

43. Aren't they rushing the latest....

...off the production line and into the marketplace??? Sounds "new" to me. And, I'm sure that when this is over, it will have shown to be "improved" as well.

.

[uppityperson]

45. No. It is the same vaccine as always, with a different virus added to it.

However, some of it is having thimerasol added to it so it will go further, be able to vaccinate more people, rather like vaccines of old days did.

This is sort of like saying the regular seasonal flu vaccine is being rushed into the marketplace. Same vaccine with different active bit for different virus.

[Myrina]

47. Rummy is on the Board of the Co that makes Tamiflu ..

... which ever-so-coincidentally also made a shitload of money off the anthrax scare after 9/11.

National Health "Concerns" up, pharma stock prices up, Rummy's retirement fund also up.

Get it now?

[Deep13]

48. Sure. I'm still going to use the stuff if I get sick.

The fact that Rumsfeld should be a defendant for war crimes has nothing to do with whether or not Tammiflu actually works.

[Deep13]

3. I'd rather be a vaccine customer than a flu patient.

I am concerned about people who can't afford $30 for each family member.

[WillieW]

9. Same here.

[Mari333]

4. well, they arent getting my money. nt

[Deep13]

6. Cutting off your nose to spite your face.

My view is that we all have a moral obligation to do what we can to limit epidemics to the degree we can and that includes the very small step of getting a flu shot.

[Mari333]

8. no thanks. I just took care of a friend who has been ill for a month from the shot

she couldnt even get out of bed.
I am sure a lot of people will benefit from them. whatever, Im not going to get one. peace.

[Deep13]

10. How do you know it was because of the shot?

Sorry if I'm stating the obvious, but just because one thing follows another does not mean the first thing caused the second. It takes several days for the shot to cause any actual immunity. How do you know he wasn't exposed to the flu just before or after getting the shot? How do you know it wasn't the change in the weather? That always makes me feel crummy. I'm not trying to needle you :evilgrin: but I think this is a valid question.

[hedgehog]

16. If someone gets sick after any immunization, they should contact their

doctor to determine what's going on.

among the possibilities:

1. Immune system reaction - the immune system is kick started by the vaccination and it does many of the same things it would do if there was an active virus to fight. Fever and chills are fever and chills regardless of the cause. Maybe your reaction is within reasonable limits, but If you and your doctor determine that your immune system overreacts to a dangerous level,- maybe you should think carefully about getting vaccinated in the future.

2. Prior infection - sucks to be you, but you got the vaccine too late to make a difference

3. Allergy to something in the vaccine itself - something you and your doctor need to know about.

4. Something unexpected about the vaccine - the doctor needs to know about this so he or she can report it to the CDC.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

12. The shot that hasn't been released yet?

Does your friend have a time machine?

[vadawg]

15. rofl, i hate it when im being skewered by you, but laugh when its others

schadenfraude or what....

[Mari333]

18. shame on you.

:)

[Mari333]

17. it was just a flu shot.

and no, I dont trust it for myself. but I dont have a problem with others getting it, dear.

[Name removed]

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[uppityperson]

42. Reading on, I see you didn't mean your friend got the vaccine this topic is about.

Thank you for clarifying, but not sure what this anecdote has to do with this topic. Dear.

[msanthrope]

20. How could your friend have been ill for a month from a shot released a week or 2 ago?

Seriously, the H1N1 vaccine just came out, within weeks. How could you friend have it?

[uppityperson]

40. You have a friend who got H1N1 vaccine a month ago? Wow. Didn't know it was available that long ago

We aren't going to be getting the injectable vaccine for another couple weeks. I know some places got it this week, but a month ago? Where did your friend get it at?

[peace13]

7. Actually we pay the bulk for the shots that are given.

The Federal Government is a major player in the purchase of these vaccines. Go figure.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

11. Good.

They're selling hundreds of millions of vaccines, and saving tens of thousands of lives in the process.

[JoeyT]

14. But but but...

Big Pharma, evil government, conspiracy theory, multinational company, shill, toxins, profit!

[Robb]

13. Wow. So, $2.5 billion in sales? Big deal.

The industry's revenue in 2007 was $315 billion, the internet tells me. :shrug:

[hedgehog]

19. The article doesn't indicate what the net profit on these

gross sales was.

"Congress has set aside more than $10 billion this year to research flu viruses"

If we pay $10 billion for the research, we should own the results, but that's an issue to be addressed later.

[surrealAmerican]

33. Thanks, hedgehog.

That's the point I was about to make. If we're paying for this research, the results should be ours.

[hedgehog]

21. Now, i am guilty of skimming links rather than reading carefully,

but I missed the paragraph describing how drug companies and doctors developed and spread H1N1 in order to rake in money offering treatments and vaccines.

[gkhouston]

30. It's a *secret* conspiracy... and that's the secret. n/t

[EnviroBat]

27. Is this H1N1 strain of Flu really that more "deadly",

than any other seasonal flu. Reason I ask is the local news did a story about this just last night. Of course they played it up as doom and gloom, as if the world were ending tomorrow. But when they went into the home of a woman who's two young daughters have both been diagnosed with the H1N1 strain, the girls were running around the house, and clearly loving their "vacation". Neither one of them appeared "deathly ill", and they were talking and giggling like they had suffered nothing worse than a head-cold.

I get the feeling sometimes that this whole thing is being sensationalized for ratings, and pharmaceutical sales. This coming from a man who almost did die from an unusual flu strain about 10 years ago. The allergic reaction to Sulfa Antibiotics, which I was mistakenly prescribed, didn't help either. That was a whammy I'll never forget. Scary when distant family is showing up at the hospital to see you one last time...

[gkhouston]

29. Most people who get it will (and can safely be) sick at home.

Some will need to be hospitalized. We don't have enough hospital beds to take care of the percentage of people who will become seriously ill if lots and lots of people get the flu. What we do have is a vaccine that will lower the overall number of people who become ill, which will in turn lesson the strain on doctors, nurses, and hospitals.

The doctors here are already feeling the strain. I tried to make a brief appointment a few weeks ago to take my child in to get a seasonal flu shot. All I needed to do was give the office one hour's notice that I was coming in and a nurse could give my child the vaccine. I tried for over an hour and couldn't even get someone to pick up the telephone--even the "answering machine" was overwhelmed and hung up without taking a message. I ended up taking her to a drugstore.

[Rude Dog]

28. Anti-science trash.

Same old bullshit.

Unrec'd, ignored.

[gatorboy]

37. Unrec'd as well.

My tax dollars are being used to save lives????

Where is the Bush administration when you need them? :P

[kestrel91316]

34. Shameful......because doctors should work for free......

And drug manufacturers (who are still private corporations last I heard, and not government-owned) should make their products for free.......