The vaccine oligopoly
This week, in the face of the most serious influenza scare for over a decade, the US has basically run out of flu vaccine. And part of the problem, according to the Wall Street Journal , is due to oligopoly.
For makers of all types of vaccines, the Institute of Medicine's report traced the decline in manufacturers' interest to the fact that the U.S. government — predominantly through the Vaccines for Children program run by the CDC — buys slightly more than 50% of the vaccines in the U.S., and keeps prices low.
One observer quoted in the article calls this an issue of monopsony power, where the government sets the prices. But I see it as a fight between oligopoly and monopsony, where the monopsony is working for the public good, offering free vaccines to poor children and protecting the public health from pandemics.Pharma companies