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Unused swine flu vaccine ‘costs taxpayers £150m’
Nice payday for big pharma’s GlaxoSmithKlein as British government over-orders
The fallout from the swine flu scare is threatening to grow into scandalous proportions with the news that unneeded doses of swine flu vaccine ordered by the British government from the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKlein have cost taxpayers at least £150m.
This follows last week's revelation - reported by The First Post - that GlaxoSmithKlein was estimated to have made $1.7bn from sales of H1N1 vaccine sales in the fourth quarter of 2009 alone and that the World Health Organisation, which made the decision to declare a "pandemic", is setting up an inquiry into whether it is unduly influenced by 'big pharma'.
According to reports, the British government ordered a total of 90m doses at a cost of approximately £540m, mainly from GSK. When cases of the illness dropped off sharply, the government tried to get out of its contract but GSK refused to back down.
As a result of a compromise deal, in which the order was reduced but at no great saving, the government was left with 34.8 million unused doses after a total of 5.5 million British people - including frontline health workers - were vaccinated.
Health Secretary Andy Burnham says these would be "held in reserve" in case the virus returns, and that high-risk candidates - including pregnant women and tourists headed for the World Cup in South Africa - will continue to be offered the jabs. Also, the British government will donate 3.8 million doses to the WHO for distribution in Africa.
The Conservatives say this still leave 30 million doses that "no one will use", representing a waste of £150m.
But this is not just an inter-party issue. Paul Flynn, the Labour MP involved in an investigation by the Council of Europe into big pharma's influence on government policies, said that Britain had bought "vastly more [vaccine doses] than any other country we know of" and called for greater transparency on the cost.
Flynn claims that by exaggerating the risk of H1N1, the WHO has in effect cried wolf. The next time a pandemic hits, he argues, the public may refuse to be vaccinated because they cannot take the world body seriously. ·
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It is high time that governments and Health Departments wised up to the fact that Big Pharma exists to make money any way they can. They have no interest in curing disease only palliating symptoms and thus in repeat business. After that come governments who are naive and easily scared into imagining the worst will happen and who then enter into foolish contracts.