Vaccine will be available -- PHARMAC

Media release

Vaccine will be available -- PHARMAC

PHARMAC is assuring New Zealanders that supplies of influenza vaccines will be available this winter, as had been earlier stated.

PHARMAC Chief Executive Wayne McNee says statements made yesterday by the National Party health spokesperson Paul Hutchison show misunderstanding of the supply chain for medicines in New Zealand.

“It is not PHARMAC’s role to “place orders” for vaccines, as Dr Hutchison states,” Wayne McNee says. “PHARMAC has negotiated a supply contract with Merck Sharp and Dohme and Sanofi Pasteur in September 2004, which sets an agreed price for the vaccine.”

“GPs then order the vaccine from the supplier. Sanofi Pasteur has assured us that supplies of its vaccine will be available from 18 April, and there is nothing to suggest that will not occur.”

Wayne McNee says that PHARMAC will be taking all possible steps to ensure that additional costs incurred through sourcing alternative vaccine supplies will be met by Sanofi, in line with the terms of its supply contract.

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