ASSOCIATED PRESS
Health officials across the country say some suppliers are trying to cash in on the flu-shot shortage.
Jack Bond’s hospital pharmacy needed 2,800 flu shots, but his supplier couldn’t provide them. Plenty of other distributors were ready to meet his needs, though — for a price. They were charging as much as $600 for a vial of 10 flu shots that normally costs about $80.
With no other choices, officials at Wesley Medical Center in Wichita, Kan., thought about paying that price “as a last resort,” said Mr. Bond, the hospital’s pharmacy director.
Fortunately, other health providers in the area came to the rescue, sharing their supplies.
In Colorado, hospitals have been offered vaccine for about $100 a shot. In South Florida, one hospital was told that the price would be $140 a shot, according to vaccine maker Aventis-Pasteur, the only company providing flu shots this year.
And those are prices for the hospitals. Typically, a consumer can pay as little as $20 for a flu shot, depending on the location.
Hospitals and federal health officials were caught off-guard at the start of the flu season when the nation’s other major vaccine producer, Chiron Corp., announced that it would not be able to provide the estimated 48 million shots expected this year. That’s nearly half the supply that federal health officials had expected to have on hand.
The British government banned Chiron’s factory in Liverpool from shipping its vaccine because of contamination problems.
Because it takes months to develop vaccine, Aventis can’t make more vaccine in time for the flu season. Aventis has 55.4 million doses available for this season — not enough to go around. The government is negotiating with other vaccine makers in the hope of acquiring a bit more.
When a flu shot leaves the factory, Aventis charges $8.50 for it, and the company says it has not raised the price since Chiron’s announcement. But prices easily can rise under the existing distribution system, which allows a vaccine to travel from manufacturer to middleman before it reaches a hospital or doctor’s office.
“There are companies out there that buy up and speculate on drugs that they think are at short supply and turn around and resell them at 10 to 100 times the markup,” said Bryant Herring, assistant pharmacy director for Wellmont Health System in Kingsport, Tenn., which has declined flu-shot offers ranging from $65 to $100 a dose.
“It drives up health care costs and also limits the availability for patients who may not be able to afford it or need it most,” Mr. Herring added.
Some states are taking action. In Kansas, Attorney General Phill Kline is suing Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Meds-Stat, saying it is trying to seek “unconscionable profits” by offering another Wichita pharmacy flu shots for about $90 each.
Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said her agency is working with states to help prosecute price-gougers.
“Shame on the people who are price-gouging,” she said. “There’s no room for this kind of behavior in an environment where we need to pull together as a country to protect our vulnerable populations.”
There are many such vulnerable people — 98 million, the CDC estimates — who should be immunized against the flu virus.
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