Health secretary seeks price cut for vaccine against meningitis

The UK health secretary has stepped up pressure on one of the world's biggest drug companies to offer a life-saving meningitis vaccine at a cheaper price.

Jeremy Hunt's appeal to the chief executive of Novartis, Joseph Jimenez, comes against a backdrop of simmering tensions between the pharmaceuticals industry and the UK government over the price a cash-strapped NHS is prepared to pay for drugs.

A health service budget squeeze and rising demand from an ageing population have created a powerful imperative to keep prices as low as possible. However, the pharmaceuticals industry says it believes the NHS is too resistant to new drugs and fails properly to reward innovation.

Last month, the joint committee on vaccination and immunisation (JCVI), which advises government, decided to back the Bexsero vaccine against meningococcal B (MenB) disease, the most common cause of bacterial meningitis and septicaemia in the UK. It recommends it be included in the NHS childhood vaccination programme

However, the JCVI stressed its recommendation "depends on securing a cost-effective price". Mr Hunt's direct approach to Mr Jimenez comes ahead of detailed negotiations with Novartis over a drug with a list price of £300 for a course of four doses.

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However, he has "a duty to promote a comprehensive health service and must make difficult decisions on how to allocate finite resources. I cannot justify purchasing this vaccine at a price above which it would be demonstrably cost-effective".

To do so would be "irresponsible and divert funding away from other, more cost-effective, health interventions and would therefore be to the detriment of the overall health of the population", says Mr Hunt.

Andrin Oswald, head of vaccines for Novartis, said: "We are willing to work with the UK Government to make the vaccine available . . . as quickly as possible."

However, in comments that suggest the company may not be inclined to give ground on the price, he added: "Given the tremendous positive impact Bexsero can have in preventing the most common cause of child mortality in the UK, we believe the vaccine is cost effective at its current UK list price of £75."

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