Seeking To Improve Public Image, Pfizer and GSK Offer Vaccines to Third World For Cheap
It’s not often that Pfizer or GlaxoSmithKline – two of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world – make the news for something other than a scandal these days, but that’s exactly what happened last week when the drugmakers announced a 10-year deal to sell a large shipment of pneumococcal vaccine (fights pneumonia and meningitis) to developing nations at a dramatically cheaper price than consumers in the first world are paying. The price for the drugs normally run from $54-$110 (depending on the dosage) and are being offered at a range of $3.50 – $7.
Could this be a sign of a more magnanimous pharma industry? Perhaps drug makers will begin offering the desperately-needed AIDS cocktails at a reduced price. No one should hold their breath on this. [Reuters]
-Michael B. Sauter
[...] Seeking To Improve Public Image, Pfizer and GSK Offer Vaccines to … [...]
[...] most drug companies are making so little off their product that the industry should be considered a massive vehicle for charity, doesn’t it seem a little unfair to ask them to paste tiny labels on their bottles that would [...]