H1N1 vaccines: Everyone's in it for the money Video

http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091108/NEWS/911080330

Profiteers peddling flu vaccine

The seasonal flu vaccine is in short supply, but licensed pharmacists and medical professionals can purchase it on a so-called "gray market" — for as much as eight times the manufacturers' original price.

Peter Scarafile, head of the pharmacy department at Cape Cod Hospital, said the hospital purchased the seasonal flu vaccine from the manufacturer at $9.50 a dose.

Recently, a so-called secondary wholesaler or distributor offered to sell the hospital up to 100 packs of Fluarix — the seasonal vaccine — at $87 a dose.

Scarafile declined, even though the hospital had not received the full allotment of seasonal flu vaccine it ordered from the manufacturer.

He compares the secondary distribution market to StubHub, the online marketplace that sells sports and entertainment tickets even to sold-out events.

"They mark them up substantially. It's based on supply and demand," Scarafile said. "There's no formula. It's not like they have a list price or anything. I get four or five phone calls or e-mails every day."

Other hospital pharmacists in the Southeast Massachusetts area are concerned by the practice, too, Scarafile said. "It's the idea they have hard-to-find medication."

In the complicated world of pharmaceutical sales, secondary wholesalers or distributors have come under fire in recent years. Critics point to cases of "counterfeit drugs" making it through the secondary supply chain to patients and to instances when pharmaceuticals have been improperly stored.

"These folks trade and swap drugs with abandon," said attorney Eric Turkewitz of New York City.