GlaxoSmithKline, Merck & Co., Inc. Cuts Prices for Third World Use

Triangle Business Journal by Lauren K. Ohnesorge, Staff Writer

An international vaccines group’s recent deal with GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) and Merck (NYSE: MRK) will result in lower prices for rotavirus shots in third world countries.

Vaccines group GAVI is bulk buying GSK’s Rotarix and Merck’s Rotateq, vaccines that combat the main cause of diarrhea, which is the second largest killer of children under the age of five worldwide.

GAVI hopes to roll out the vaccines in more than 40 of the world’s poorest countries by 2016, immunizing more than 70 million children. Of the contracted supply of 132 million doses, 95 percent will cost about $5 per two-dose course, a two-thirds price cut compared to the previous lowest price offered to GAVI of $15 a course. Those same vaccine courses cost public institutions in the United States $177 and private health providers $213.

GSK, a British company, employs about 4,500 at its RTP facility. New Jersey-based Merck is expanding its Durham vaccine-manufacturing facility and expects to employ 1,000 people there by the end of the year.

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