Health ministers have admitted that they made mistakes during last year’s influenza pandemic and that they should have negotiated better terms with pharmaceutical companies. Ministers have asked the European Commission to develop a joint purchasing strategy to strengthen their position in negotiations with drugs companies. 

Laurette Onkelinx, Belgium’s health minister, who chaired an informal meeting of health ministers on Monday (5 July), said: “We were too weak in negotiating alone with drug firms on acquisition and stocking of vaccines.”

Joint purchasing would, she suggested, have made it possible to avoid contracts with onerous obligations on confidentiality or liability. Belgium was persuaded into accepting virtually all civil liabilities relating to the use of the influenza product it bought from drug-maker GlaxoSmithKline.

Ministers unanimously asked the Commission to develop a procedure that would allow them to make joint purchases of vaccines. John Dalli, the European commissioner for health, promised to come up with proposals this autumn for a common acquisition platform for vaccines and antivirals. He said this would be open to any member state that wished to take part in common procurement.

Until now, member states have resisted common purchasing. “Today, no one is against it,” said Dalli.

Securing supplies

The move is a response to massive over-buying of vaccines and medicines by health authorities to deal with the influenza pandemic in 2009. In their rush to secure supplies from drugs companies, member states competed with one another, and accepted terms and prices that they regretted as it emerged the pandemic was not as big as feared.

An expert conference on the pandemic, organised by the Commission and the Belgian presidency of the Council of Ministers just before the informal health council, recommended exploring joint purchasing mechanisms “to ensure equitable access, at the lowest price”.

Dalli’s announcement took the pharmaceutical industry by surprise. Magdalena de Azero of the European Vaccine Manufacturers Association said that industry had not been involved in any discussions of the idea. Nor, she said, had industry been invited to the expert conference.

Big-money business

Overall sales of pandemic vaccines during the outbreak are estimated at upwards of €5 billion, and a Council of Europe report in June made wide-ranging allegations of mismanagement and waste of public money. French Green MEP Michèle Rivasi is drawing up a report on the subject.

GlaxoSmithKline, one of the principal suppliers, has been accused of refusing get-out clauses from contracts. The company says it has been working closely with governments to respond to their needs, and to find appropriate and fair solutions. It reached a compromise with the Netherlands, but is challenging a French government cancellation of part of a contract.

In Italy, a dispute with Novartis over payment for unused H1N1 vaccine is likely to end in the courts, said Ferruccio Fazio, Italy’s health minister.

Click Here: cheap Cowboys jersey