Childhood Vaccine Shortage Is Eminent

[Guest guest]

one can only hope.......

and once again, get out your hankies.............these poor companies, just

chokes me up

" Under SEC rules, companies can't record sales as revenue while the vaccine

remains in the factory. The rules do allow for exceptions, but the vaccine

stockpile doesn't meet one of the criteria. "

But we know they'll get their way

Sheri

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2004-11-08-vaccine-usat_x.htm

USA TODAY

11/8/2004 11:14 PM

SEC 'glitch' hampers child vaccine

By Anita Manning, USA TODAY

The national stockpile of vaccines for children, planned as a cushion

against shortages or emergencies, is seriously understocked, health

officials say.

The problem isn't money. Funding to buy a six-month supply of recommended

childhood shots from vaccine makers is available through the Vaccines for

Children Program, which has allotted $172 million for the purpose. The

glitch, says Cochi, acting director of the Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention (news - web sites)'s Immunization Program, is a

Securities and Exchange Commission (news - web sites) accounting regulation

that bars vaccine makers from claiming sales to the stockpile program as

revenue until they're delivered to the customer - in this case, the CDC.

Vaccines are biological products that have expiration dates, like fresh

foods, and manufacturers manage inventories by sending out older products

first to avoid having supplies pass expiration dates. When they pass the

dates, they are destroyed.

" It's really a strategic reserve more than a stockpile, " Cochi says.

SEC spokesman Heine says the so-called " bill and hold guidance, " which

applies to a " wide range of industries, " is designed to protect investors by

saying that companies generally can't count a sale as revenue until the

buyer takes delivery.

Under SEC rules, companies can't record sales as revenue while the vaccine

remains in the factory. The rules do allow for exceptions, but the vaccine

stockpile doesn't meet one of the criteria.

The " unintended consequence, " Cochi says, is that three of the four vaccine

makers have pulled out of the program, leaving only Merck.

Ian Spatz, Merck's vice president for public policy, says the company is

sticking with the program, but it would like to see the regulation change

because it could discourage drug companies from participating.

" Imagine, for all the products Merck sold, if we couldn't record them as

revenue, " he says. " Our shareholders would not be pleased. "

Congress is aware of the issue. Sen. Tom Harkin (news, bio, voting record),

D-Iowa, ranking member of the subcommittee on labor, health and human

services, and education, has requested a Department of Health and Human

Services (news - web sites) report outlining proposed solutions by the end

of the year.

Of the nine vaccines needed for the stockpile, only MMR

(measles-mumps-rubella) is fully stocked, while there are no reserve

supplies of other vaccines, including pneumococcal vaccine and DTaP

(diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis).

The CDC began the vaccine stockpile in 1983, though until last year, only

about $30 million per year was available to fund it. In 2003, because of

vaccine shortages and increased bioterrorism fears, the program was expanded

to allow purchase of a six-month supply of all routinely recommended

childhood vaccines. It wasn't until then that the conflict with the SEC rule

became apparent.

The stockpile was last used in summer 2003, when 46,000 doses of MMR vaccine

were withdrawn to contain a measles outbreak in the Marshall Islands.

" We've had repeated shortages of childhood vaccines since 2000, " Cochi says.

" It's not just the flu vaccine, it's all vaccines. There are a number of

ways to solve the vaccine shortages on the pediatric side, and the strategic

reserve is one of the obvious ways we can cushion ourselves. If we can't

solve this problem, we're in trouble. "

--------------------------------------------------------

Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Classical Homeopath

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Nevada City CA & Wales UK

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******

" Just look at us. Everything is backwards; everything is upside down.

Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy

knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the major media destroy information

and religions destroy spirituality " .... Ellner