CREW sent a letter today to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requesting an antitrust investigation into drug companies’ vaccine distribution policies. Many drug companies, including Sanofi Pasteur and Merck, offer vaccines at discount prices – but with a potentially dangerous catch.

The discounts are conditioned on an express agreement that the physicians’ healthcare groups will use only the offering drug company’s vaccines and other products. If any member of the practice fails to comply with this exclusivity requirement, the entire practice loses the discounts.

On top of potentially depriving patients of receiving best-suited vaccines, this all-too-common occurrence suppresses market competition and may prevent new and more effective vaccines from being developed.

CREW’s Executive Director Melanie Sloan said today:

Patients presume that doctors choose vaccines based on the patient’s best interests. Now we learn that’s not always true. In some cases, doctors are choosing vaccines based on the discounts offered by the drug manufacturer. No one should have to question their physicians’ motives, but the practices of companies like Sanofi Pasteur and Merck suggest we should all be questioning our doctors closely about why they chose a particular vaccine.

Click here to read CREW’s letter to the FTC.