[FirstWord]- The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) publicly listed for the first time the prices it pays individual drug manufacturers for vaccines. UNICEF spokesperson Joan Howe stated that the agency made the decision “in the hopes it will lead to a more competitive market and lower prices, especially for newer vaccines.”

The agency, which spent $757 million in 2010 on immunisations for children in developing countries, posted several years’ worth of retroactive data on prices paid to companies, The data revealed that Indian suppliers are the lowest-cost producers in many cases. For example, a vaccine used for the prevention of diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis B and haemophilus influenzae type B produced by Serum Institute of India charged UNICEF $2.25 a dose last year, compared with $2.95 charged by GlaxoSmithKline and $3.20 charged by Crucell, which was recently acquired by Johnson & Johnson.

While the polio vaccine costs UNICEF as little as 12 cents a dose, newer vaccines such as the pneumococcal vaccine made, separately, by Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline costs $3.50 a dose, and both companies get an additional $3.50 for the first six million shots as an added incentive to supply the immunisation to developing countries.

Commenting on the news, GlaxoSmithKline said that it “always offers UNICEF our vaccines at our lowest price as they are targeted at the people who need them the most, but are least able to pay. We welcome UNICEF’s move to publish retrospective prices for tenders and hope that this will help inform decisions for future vaccine procurement.” Going forward, UNICEF has now informed companies that it will publish how much it pays them. However, Novartis responded that it “does not disclose pricing information on its vaccines, as this information is competitive.” And Merck & Co. and Japan’s BCG Laboratory also refused requests for permission to post what the agency paid for their vaccines.

Doctors Without Borders’ deputy director of its global access campaign, Daniel Berman, stated that UNICEF’s latest move “is going to make a huge difference.” He added “as soon as the donors see the differentials, they’re going to insist that UNICEF and GAVI [Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization] get better prices.”