General Chat

I believe the MenB vaccine is very affective for MenW
also which is given to 14 year olds.

I would pay for my great grand daughters to have this vaccine.

Although not defending drug companies, they spend millions (billions?) on R&D.

Many of the drugs never make it to production because testing finds they don't work or have serious side-effects.

Costs will only fall significantly when some have been recouped or the patent expires.
Even if a rival gets hold of it and gives it a tweak to patent themselves, they still have to carry out extensive testing.

Savings do need to be made in the NHS. Thinning out layers of management and superfluous paperwork would help. Saved cash could then be spent on patient care and medicines.

My son had Meningitis when he was 10 days old (born 6 weeks premature) and now 24 years later I live on a daily basis with the consequences.

Obviously he was too young to have had a vaccine but if any child and their family can be saved from the horror of this horrible illness then in my humble opinion there is NO argument against making this vaccine available.

£100 against the NHS, care and education costs for my son over the years (and continuing) is a mere drop in the ocean.

Chris

Drug manufacturers are following the example of recent UKIP financial shenanigans - think of a figure & then double it. 'Repatriate' whenever & wherever possible.

Perhaps they should add up the cost of NOT providing the vaccine. The local case of Harmonie-Rose is, I'm sure, replicated across the country - how much will this little girl need over the years to live a normal life?

I myself have thought that there are far to many admin staff in the NHS put the money to better use & save lives .

On Radio 4 this morning a consultant from St Mary's London quoted a single dose as £100 and 3 doses are needed for the full cover

years ago I organised a summer fete for our local psychiatric hospital where I worked - I wrote to every drug company which supplied drugs to our hospital asking if they were able to make a donation - there were dozens of companies - just one responded positively, the rest never replied or said they were unable to help

..or they could 'pull in' all the tax evaders, and make life difficult for tax avoiders, then they'd have plenty of money to fund the NHS. :-D

Another useful thing to do, would be to discourage drug companies from overpricing and trying to 'bribe' both GP's and NHS Trusts :-|

a small price to pay for the life of a child - all the NHS need to do is to cut some of the layers of administrators - most of whom have never ever come across a patient in the flesh - to many chiefs and not enough Indians

There is now an effective vaccine for meningitis B. The disease is fatal for 10% of those who contract it and can leave survivors with a poor prognosis.

Although the govt says that introduction of the vaccine is "urgent" haggling over the price has been going on for over a year. Is £ 75 too much ?

"GSK's list price for a single dose of Bexsero - the vaccine in question - was £75, but that figure would not necessarily apply if it was used in a mass vaccination programme, the company said. "

Funding suggestion: charge anybody brought into A&E due to being drunk £ 100 + full cost of treatment.