Vaccine Company Dumps Prices For Refugees

Medecins Sans Frontieres has finally won their battle to get a reduced cost on the pneumococcal vaccine for refugees.

The maker of the vaccine, GlaxoSmithKline, has formally agreed to lower the cost; a cost that Medicins Sans Frontieres has called “exorbitant.”

According to Reuters:

The British drugmaker said on Monday it would provide Synflorix, which protects children against pneumonia and other diseases, at a discounted price of $3.05 per dose to recognized civil society organizations.

In Greece, MSF said it had been forced to pay 50 pounds ($65) a dose in local pharmacies in order to vaccinate thousands of refugee children fleeing from conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Previously, the low price of $3.05 price has only been available to the world’s poorest countries.

There has been no word from the maker of Prevnar, Pfizer, as to whether or not they will implement similar price reductions.