is what cost us the flop of the vaccine The pandemic runs. The costs of vaccines remain. Twenty-four million doses purchased by Italy against the H1N1 virus at a price of € 184 million, 10 million doses withdrawn from factories and distributed to local health services, 865mila actually inoculated. The vast majority of the packages is stored in the pharmacies of local health services, vaccination centers in the districts or in studies of family physicians. A journey through the healthcare speaks Italian refrigerators full (including vaccines should be stored at 4 degrees worth their degradation) and skepticism among the people at the heart of the immunization campaign. Over 20 million people are among the "eligible population" to be vaccinated according to the ministry, but only 827mila brought the arm to the syringe, with a ratio of 3.99%. And if Italy has already agreed to donate 10% of their doses (2.4 million) because the WHO distribute to poor countries, most of the bottles seems poised to maturity, provided 12 months after the date of manufacture and then in stages between September and December 2010. At that point, there will be nothing to do but throw them.
But for Novartis, which has signed the contract with the Ministry of Health, the collection will be full anyway. The 184 million agreed in the contract of August 21, 2009 (when the pandemic struck the Americas in particular and not had not yet reached Italy) will be paid in full even if the vaccines are delivered less than half of those agreed. In fact, there is no contract provision for reduction to the Ministry. And if yesterday Codacons announced a class action on behalf of the 60 million users of the Italian health system, including the Court of Auditors has initiated a procedure to check the "Decree of 27 August 2009 concerning the approval of the contract for the supply of doses of influenza vaccine (H1N1) between the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Policy and the Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics Ltd ".
Codacons calls for the termination of the contract with the pharmaceutical industry ("A waste enormous given the poor adherence to vaccination) and repayment to the citizens of € 184 million spent. If you win, to each of the 60 million users of the health system should be 3 €. "In addition - continues Codacons - 50 € symbolic compensation for each person. "The Court of Auditors into the details of the clauses of the contract with Novartis. And he wonders why" Article 3.1 (stated in Article 5.3) provides for the possibility of non-compliance with delivery dates of product without the application of any penalty. "Or because" Article 9.3 provides for the payment to Novartis of € 24.08 million (excluding VAT) for the purpose of cost sharing in case of not getting permission marketing of the product. "Fortunately, the vaccine has passed the test of EMEA, the European body in charge of security checks. But if something went wrong, the ministry would still have to pay 24 million for a drug useless .
The challenge to the courts of Viale Mazzini, then privacy concerns of the contract: "Article 10.2 Confidential Information also considers the existence of the contract and its provisions, clause - in the public evidence of the procedure - not be respected. "And finally, something which fortunately did not occur but that might lead to a drain on the state, the contract provides that any side effects of the vaccine on patients are dependent on the ministry and not as is usually the case of the pharmaceutical industry. "Article 4.5 - disputes the Court - to the Ministry provides reimbursement for damages caused to third parties, solely due to manufacturing defects, while under Article 4.6, the Ministry Novartis will have to compensate for damages caused to third parties in all other cases ".
clauses so unbalanced were dictated by fast. But why so high a cost compared to a vaccination campaign never took off, the prosecutor questioned yesterday, hiding behind the no comment yet. Some virologists from universities try to explain what happened, and why of such disproportion. "Now we know that H1N1 is a mild virus. But at the beginning of the pandemic, we still had fresh memories of bird, which has a mortality of about 50%, "said Giovanni Di Perri, director of infectious diseases all'Amedeo Savoy in Turin." The influence who has always put in difficulty make predictions. Models can jump, the virus often surprise us, "notes Peter Crovari, professor emeritus of health and preventive medicine at the University of Genoa. And Guido Antonelli, a virologist at the Sapienza in Rome, does not mean that next year is the H1N1 virus included in the normal seasonal vaccination: "At the beginning of each year, the WHO decided against such seasonal influenza vaccine should be addressed. Maybe the next winter we will find ourselves among the three H1N1 strains of the normal seasonal vaccine.
Although the vaccination campaign this winter is not over yet and the Ministry of Health warns of a possible second pandemic wave, data on coverage of vaccines are very low. The medical personnel who had been recommended immunizations includes little more than a million people were vaccinated even 70 thousand (15.1%). law enforcement officers and operators of essential services do not reach the 6% (6 thousand on 723mila). Among the blood donors even as the stop at 0.83%. In recent weeks, some local health authorities have also extended the vaccination campaign to over 65 with chronic diseases. But even they seem too convinced, and participation remains steady at 1, 5 per cent. More than vaccinations, now seem to seasonal sales.
Source: corriere.it
