| PeterB 2005-09-26, 5:22 pm |
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Rich wrote:
> "Mark Probert" <markprobert@lumbercartel.com> wrote in message
> news:3sjZe.18138$Xa.3658@fe12.lga...
>
>
> You missed this one, Mark. Petey loves to repeat the fantasy that Vaccines
> represent major profits for the Pharmaceutical companies. Although some
> companies specialize in vaccines, they are tiny corporations compared to the
> big boys. And for the big companies that do make vaccines, that segment of
> their manufacture represents only a small percentage. Since viruses culture
> is demanding (some viruses must be grown in live tissue), and the process
> for deactivating the resulting viruses without destroying their
> immunilogical activity is delicate, vaccines are expensive to produce
> compared to simply synthesizing a molecule for, say, yet another
> hypertension medication. No, the "vaccine franchise" is NOT the bread and
> butter of the pharmaceutical industry. Sorry, Peter.
The reason I say vaccine represents a global bread-n-butter franchise
is because more than half of children's vaccines in the US are
purchased with federal funds, therefore marketing and other typical
overhead costs are largely irrelevant to this class of drug. While
vaccine may not represent the kind of home-run profits we might see
with more popular blockbuster drugs, they do represent about 3.5% of
total revenues, and with much of that being subsidized by taxpayers,
it's definitely an area of turf worth protecting.
PeterB
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