Jack Bond’s hospital pharmacy needed 2,800 flu shots, but
his supplier couldn’t provide them. Plenty of other
distributors were ready to meet his needs, though—for a
price: as much as $600 for a vial of 10 flu shots that normally
costs around $80.

With no other choices, officials at Wesley Medical Center in
Wichita, Kan., thought about paying that price “as a last
resort,” said Bond, the hospital’s pharmacy
director.

Fortunately, other health providers in the area came to the rescue,
sharing their supplies.

Around the country, health officials say some suppliers are trying
to cash in on the flu shot shortage.

In Colorado, hospitals have been offered vaccine for about $100 a
shot. In south Florida, one hospital was told the price would be
$140 a shot, according to vaccine maker Aventis Pasteur, currently
the only company providing flu shots this year.

And those are prices for the hospitals. Typically, a consumer can
pay as little as $20 for a flu shot, depending on the location.

Hospitals and federal health officials were caught off-guard at the
start of the flu season when the nation’s other major vaccine
producer, Chiron Corp., announced it would be unable to provide the
estimated 48 million shots expected this year. That’s nearly
half the supply federal health officials had counted on.

The British government banned Chiron’s factory in Liverpool
from shipping its vaccine because of contamination problems.

Because it takes months to develop vaccine, Aventis can’t
make more vaccine in time for the flu season. Aventis has only
about 55.4 million doses available for this season, simply not
enough to go around. The government is negotiating with other
vaccine makers in hopes of shaking loose a bit more.

When a flu shot leaves the factory, Aventis charges $8.50 for it,
and the company says it has not raised the price since
Chiron’s announcement. But prices easily can rise under the
existing distribution system, which allows vaccine to travel from
manufacturer to middleman before it reaches a hospital or
doctor’s office.

“There are companies out there that buy up and speculate on
drugs that they think are at short supply and turn around and
resell them at 10 to 100 times the mark up,” said Bryant
Herring, assistant pharmacy director for Wellmont Health System in
Kingsport, Tenn., which has declined flu shot offers ranging from
$65 to $100 a dose.

“It drives up health care costs and also limits the
availability for patients who may not be able to afford it or need
it most,” Herring added.

Federal prosecutors could use a variety of fraud, conspiracy and
other charges to pursue individuals or companies thought to be
engaging in price-gouging. Some states are taking their own action.
In Kansas, Attorney General Phill Kline is suing Fort Lauderdale,
Fla.-based Meds-Stat for allegedly trying to seek
“unconscionable profits” by offering another Wichita
pharmacy flu shots for about $90 each.

Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, said her agency is working with states to help
prosecute price-gougers.

“Shame on the people who are price-gouging,” she said.
“There’s no room for this kind of behavior in an
environment where we need to pull together as a country to protect
our vulnerable populations.”

There are many such vulnerable people—98 million, the CDC
says—who should be immunized against the flu virus.

Those people include babies and toddlers ages 6-23 months; anyone
65 or older; anyone with chronic medical conditions such as heart
or lung disease; pregnant women; residents of long-term care
facilities; children on chronic aspirin therapy; health workers who
care for high-risk patients; and caregivers and household contacts
of babies under age 6 months.

As one remedy to problems caused by the shortage, the CDC and
Aventis Pasteur announced Tuesday a plan to redistribute the
company’s remaining shots directly to pediatricians, nursing
homes and other places that care for high-risk patients.

“The new distribution plan ... will minimize price-gouging
because it will keep the vaccine out of that rather diffuse
distribution system of professional distributors and
sub-distributors,” said vaccine expert Dr. William Schaffner,
chairman of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University in
Nashville, Tenn.

It also will provide a shot-in-the-arm to areas completely devoid
of the vaccine.

“You can’t get a flu shot at any price in
Nashville—they’re gone,” Schaffner lamented.

 
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