http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/b...s/15592429.htm
Quote:
| The rising prices, at the same time, are drawing scrutiny from the public, insurers and regulators. For now, Americans are accepting the costs, unlike some European countries that have balked, experts say. "Vaccines really have been undervalued" at just a few dollars per dose, said Lance Rodewald, head of immunization services at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "But new vaccines are not as cost-effective as the old vaccines. The risk is always there that they could become" overpriced. Sharon Levine, an associate medical director at Kaiser Permanente, the California-based health insurer for 8.6 million people, said: "The question is, what is a reasonable profit margin on that line of business, and how does it get spread across the community?" Price is just one element of what increasingly looks like a vaccine boom, with global sales predicted to grow from $8 billion this year to $18 billion by 2010. Scientific breakthroughs and a flood of government and charitable funding - much of it for Third World epidemics and a potential flu pandemic - may be creating a bonanza in a business that had become valued less for profit than for public health and corporate image. |
: laughup
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Good one!
