Big Pharma consistently raises the price of required childhood vaccine
Formula hasn’t changed in years, but the cost sure has
Every November Pfizer, an international pharmaceutical giant, raises the price for the pneumococcal vaccine Prevnar 13. The company is the only producer.
“It’s like buying gas in a hurricane — or Coke in an airport,” Dr. Lindsay Irvin, a pediatrician in San Antonio told KHN news. “They charge what they want to.”
The vaccine is often recommended for children younger than age 2, and it requires four doses. Many schools require children to have the vaccine before they can attend.
Pfizer received federal approval for the vaccine’s formulation in 2010, and each year the price rises – usually 5 or 6 percent. In 2010 the vaccine cost $110, but this year it us up to $170 and expected to hit $180 next year. That will be more than a 60 percent increase in just eight years.
Higher costs make it more difficult for doctors to stock up, Dr. Michael Munger told KHN news.
“Pfizer and other drug companies are raising their prices because they can,” Gerard Anderson told KHN news. Anderson is a health policy professor at Johns Hopkins University who studies drug pricing. “They have a patent, and they have a CDC recommendation, which is a double whammy — and a strong incentive for price increases.”