(The global market for vaccine is about $6 billion a year, while the global market for drugs is about $340 billion a year. But Wyeth wasn’t out of the flu vaccine business — yet. The WHO called a summit in November of major flu vaccine manufacturers and international health officials, warning them flu vaccine production capacity could be overwhelmed by the possible pandemic on the horizon. If successful, the new biotechnology may provide the answer to chronic vaccine shortages. Over three seasons, Wyeth lost $50 million from unsold flu vaccine. Flu vaccine can’t be saved from year to year. Public Citizen, a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization, reported: According to research by the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, since 1980, there have been just seven cases involving the standard flu vaccine reported in state and federal appellate courts.
Despite the vaccine shortage, Treanor says it is difficult to predict whether the impending flu season will be particularly severe. “At least in our database, it’s not there.” So, sometime the next spring Wyeth threw away 7 million unsold doses, for a loss of $30 million. "We have no real capacity to make [a pandemic] vaccine right now," said Longini, who studies the spread of global flu epidemics. The feds now purchase over half of all vaccines at a low fixed price and distribute them to doctors.
In the late 80’s a man from North Carolina who had received the vaccine got the flu. The Spanish flu of 1918-1919 killed more than 20 million people worldwide, with some estimates putting the number of deaths at more than 40 million. By the way…the lawyer that represented the man in the flu shot law suit was a young ambulance chaser by the name of John Edwards. 29 October 2004.
A 1974 report co-authored by Ruth Bader Ginsburg about sex bias in U.S. law has been grossly misinterpreted. ...The issue comes down primarily to economics ... Profit margins are small.".
Basically, they were doing us a favor. The production of flu vaccine (and the requirement of meeting Food and Drug Administration standards) is a labor-intensive process.
Moreover, most American pharmaceutical companies got out of the flu vaccine market because a variety of factors (not related to lawsuits) made it an unattractive line of business: Flu viruses mutate easily, so new flu vaccine formulas have to be made up every year.
PURPOSE We assessed the impact of the severe influenza vaccine shortage of 2004 on individual physicians’ immunization performance. N.C. Lawyers Weekly, which reports on legal cases in North Carolina, compiled a list of all of Edwards’ lawsuits when he was tapped as U.S. Sen. John Kerry’s running mate. Records show that the foreign-run Facebook group Kayleigh McEnany OFFICIAL had at least 456,000 members just weeks ahead of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Because flu viruses mutate so rapidly, no two flu seasons are ever the same. Only 450,000 doses were sold; the rest were thrown away. To produce the flu vaccine, a live virus must be injected into millions of bird eggs, usually chickens', so it can replicate. "It makes us very concerned that we are at risk for another pandemic in the very near future," said Dr. Mitchell Cohen, director of the Coordinating Center for Infectious Disease at the CDC. Almost half of the nation’s flu vaccine will not be delivered this year. Chiron was to make 46-48 million doses of vaccine for the United States.
Recent Comments