NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Medecins Sans Frontieres announced Tuesday it will reject an offer of free pneumonia vaccine from pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc, after the company declined to offer a more “sustainable and long-term” solution for acquiring the drug through discounted pricing, MSF officials told Devex.

“Until now, both Pfizer and [GlaxoSmithKline PLC] have said they would reduce the price, but have instead offered us donations,” said Judit Rius, U.S. manager and legal policy adviser for MSF’s Access Campaign.

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, typically negotiates discounts directly with pharmaceutical companies for vaccines purchased by governments and organizations working in low-income countries. But middle- and upper-income countries don’t qualify for the discounts, and in some cases governments and organizations pay 30 to 50 times the discounted price, despite coping with protracted humanitarian crises, such as caring for large numbers of refugees in Greece, for example.