San Jose Mercury News Friday February 12, 1993 (U.S. News and World Report stats at end) CLINTON SAYS VACCINE PRICES ARE SCANDALOUS He begins initiative to get shots for kids ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) - President Clinton rapped the drug industry today for its "shocking" prices as he launched a new initiative to get American children vaccinated, including $300 million to keep clinics open longer. The president, joined by his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and key health policy makers, announced the initiative after touring an Arlington County clinic where parents take their children for free shots. A day after his wife spoke out against profiteering by vaccine makers, Clinton took up the refrain in blunt language sure to rattle the pharmaceutical industry. There was no immediate reaction from the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association or such major vaccine makers as Connaught Laboratories and Merck & Co. But Lederly Laboratories issued a conciliatory statement saying its vaccine division "shares President Clinton's goal to have all our nation's children immunized." It said it supported Clinton's call for a national tracking system and improvements in the immunization infrastructure. Clinton said that "over the past 10 years, the price of vaccines has risen at six times the rate of inflation. Immunizing a child cost $23 ten years ago. It costs more than $200 today" for private-sector vaccines. At public clinics, the price of vaccines "has leaped from $7 to more than $90," he said. "This is unconscionable. We are running the risk of new epidemics spreading out in this country," he said. Manufacturers claim that research and development costs drive up the prices, he said, but the industry "is spending $1 billion more each year on advertising and lobbying than it does on developing new or better drugs." "Meanwhile, its profits are rising four times faster than the average Fortune 500 company. Compared to other countries, our prices are shocking," he said. He said a polio vaccine that costs almost $10 here goes for $1.80 in England and 77 cents in Belgium. Drug makers have said vaccines cost more in part because the excise tax the government put on shots in 1986 to compensate children injured by vaccines. Each dose of the diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus vaccine, known as DPT, carries a $4.56 excise tax. Clinton says vaccine makers had negotiated discounts with 10 states but had refused to start talks with others. "Today, we tell the drug companies to change those priorities," Clinton said. Clinton said his economic stimulus package will include $300 million "to make vaccination services more widely available" by helping public programs buy more vaccine, keeping clinics open longer, hiring more staff and bolstering community service outreach programs. It also will help create a national tracking system. Clinton also directed Health and Human Services Secretary Donna E. Shalala "to negotiate with the drug manufacturers to assure that states can get the vaccines they need at affordable prices." He also said he would work with key lawmakers on drafting a legislative plan "that will guarantee the immunization of every child." "It is unacceptable that the United States is the only industrialized country that does not guarantee childhood vaccinations for all children," he said. About half the nation's children get their shots from public clinics and half from private doctors. Clinton stopped short of having the government buy up the entire stock of childhood vaccine for free distribution- one step his administration had considered. The industry opposed such a move. Hillary Clinton, at a health care forum in Middletown, PA., on Thursday, warned that the drug industry would resist reforms because it has profited so much from inflated medical prices. She said that in the Western Hemisphere, only Bolivia and Haiti have lower immunization rates than the United States. U.S News and World Report February 15th, 1993 Estimated cost of the Clinton vaccine plan: $300-$500 million Estimated dollars saved in later medical costs per each dollar spent on immunization: 10 Cost of all recommended childhood vaccines when bought by private doctors in 1982: $23; in 1992: $244; cost when bought by the federal government in 1982:$7; in 1992:$129 Percentage of fully vaccinated U.S. preschool children: about 50 Percentage of fully vaccinated inner-city preschool children: 10 Worldwide rank of the United States in number of babies who are fully immunized against polio: 17; some countries that rank higher: Albania, Bulgaria, China, Hungary Funds allocated by the U.S. government for the collection of immunization data since 1985: $0