By JEANNE WHALENAbout half of the 15 governments that ordered H1N1 vaccine from Novartis AG ended up cancelling part of their orders, and some are still negotiating with the company over payment, Andrin Oswald, head of Novartis's vaccine business, said in an interview.
Dr. Oswald said Novartis will seek clearer cancellation terms in future pandemic contracts.
"We would need ... more clarity in the contract about what happens in the situation we have right now, if a government feels it has too much vaccine," he said in a phone interview, "because the debates we have right now are not helpful."
When the swine-flu pandemic began last year, most Western governments scrambled to buy as much vaccine as possible. But when it turned out to be mild, many of the doses went unused, and governments cancelled part of their orders.
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France cancelled part of its original order from Novartis and said it would pay the Swiss drug giant 16% of the originally agreed price for the cancelled doses, Dr. Oswald said. Novartis felt this was inadequate, but "accepted it at the end as a decision that the French government took," he said. "We didn't feel it was in the best interest of our business to try to take legal action against it."
Other countries are also trying to pay Novartis less than originally agreed for cancelled doses, he said. "Our argument is, given that we have committed all the resources, we would want to be paid for the part of shipments that the government would not take. The government, of course, would argue, well, since we don't need it, we don't want to pay for it. So we try to find solutions in between," he said.
Aunque...
tan mal no fué la "cosa"...
Novartis has still profited handsomely from the pandemic, booking H1N1 vaccine sales of more than $2 billion over the past two quarters.
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