October 08, 2004

Quick Addition on Vaccine Issue

By Ian

Surprisingly, the SFGate has a clear and sensible take on the underlying causes of the vaccine shortage:

The fundamental problem is that government regulatory policies and what amounts to price controls discourage companies from investing aggressively to develop new vaccines. Producers have abandoned the field in droves, leaving only four major producers and a few dozen products. Only two companies make injectable flu vaccine, for example: Chiron, unable to supply any product this year because of allegations of contamination; and Aventis Pasteur, whose 54 million doses will be all that are available. (In addition, 2 million doses of FluMist, an inhalable nasal vaccine, will be ready.)

And make sure to read their suggested corrections. Not sure I agree with them completely, but in sum they might approximate the repealing of the bad policies that got us to this point in the first place.

Posted at October 8, 2004 11:08 AM

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