Pfizer offers discounted Prevnar 13 for humanitarian programmes

A month after the global charity Médecins Sans Frontières publicly turned down the offer of a million free Prevnar doses by Pfizer, the drug giant on Friday announced a ''major expansion'' to its humanitarian assistance with the vaccine.

To help during emergencies, Pfizer would reduce the price of its pneumococcal blocker Prevnar 13 to the ''lowest prevailing global'' cost of $3.10 per dose in such cases. And that was not all, for the first year of the programme, the company would donate all proceeds ''to humanitarian groups undertaking the difficult work of reaching vulnerable populations in emergency settings,'' according to a statement.

The move comes after repeated calls over years by MSF, on Pfizer and London pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline to lower their prices.

For starters, Pfizer will offer a ''short-term'' donation of single-dose Prevnar 13 vials and in 2017, the pharma giant will supply a multidose vial containing four doses in the same size container.

The new formulation is ''designed to address the unique conditions and challenges experienced in developing world settings and can help health workers in humanitarian emergencies,'' Pfizer said in its statement. 

In July, when Pfizer announced that the WHO had backed the multi-dose vial, the company said the formulation vial could cut temperature-controlled supply chain requirements, UNICEF shipping costs and storage requirements, all by 75 per cent.

The programme comes after an initiative by UK drug manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline, which stated in September that it would cut the price of its pneumococcal vaccine, called Synflorix, to $3.05 when it came to humanitarian crises.

The vaccine was approved by the EU in 2009, and the shots are used extensively in over 150 countries worldwide, including the US, Japan, Australia or Canada, against pneumococcal viral problems.

The safety precautions that need to be observed are that the vaccine should not be administered to people who had had severe allergic reactions, as well to children with unsteady immune systems.