Vaccine Distributors: We're Not Hiking Rates
Updated 1:30 PM EDT, Wed, Nov 4, 2009
Earlier this week, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal posed a question that's been weighing on people's minds. Are vaccine makers and distributors price gouging?
Joseph Schulmann, president of ABO Pharmaceuticals of San Diego, responded, and said he's not hiking the price of seasonal flu vaccine and that he's honored the contracted price of $10.89 per dose on the order he shipped to Connecticut earlier this year, the Hartford Courant reports.
On Monday, Blumenthal said his office is investigating 13 makers and distributors of flu vaccines regarding possible price fixing and preferential treatment for big retailers.
"I will fight to assure no one makes a killing off the seasonal flu vaccine shortage -- potentially endangering seniors and the sick -- and everyone who needs a shot gets one" Blumenthal said.
Blumenthal added that the office has received complaints that some vaccines are being sold for as much as $100 a dose.
In a phone interview with the Courant, Schulmann said, "I don't know anything about price gouging. I know that in the past, there was low compliance among nurses and doctors who were required to get vaccinated. This year, it seems like they all did. In New York, tens of thousands (of health practitioners} were vaccinated. I received some desperate calls about supplies, but we were shorted by the manufacturer."
Because of the short supply of seasonal flu vaccine, Schulmann said, he was able to send only 70 percent of an order to a Connecticut health agency in April, but he said he stuck to the original price.
MedImmune Vaccines Inc. of Gaithersburg, Maryland, also told the Courant they have not boosted.
First Published: Nov 4, 2009 12:47 PM EDT
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