Flu Season :: essays research papers

each(prenominal) course the winter seasons brings with it cold, snow, holidays, and to a lucky few a exhibit from work or school. To many, however, winter brings the dreaded Influenza computer virus, a virus which, if left to its own devices, can bring death, especially to the young, the old, and the infirm. This year winter also brought with it a shortage of the Influenza vaccine, which was due to a pollution of one manufacturers go forth. (Flaherty A02) The resulting decrease in come out caused a dramatic increase in the worth demanded by suppliers (and the price paid by consumers). (Flaherty A02)influenza Vaccine for the United States was produced solely by two foreign manufacturers this year, Aventis Pasteur and Chiron Corp. These two manufacturers shift their vaccine to U.S. distributors like Stat Pharmaceuticals Inc. of El Cajon, CA and Meds-Stat based in Ft. Lauderdale, FL who will go on to sell to hospitals, pharmacies, and health care clinics (Flaherty A02). On Octo ber fifth the Chiron Corp. announced that their entire supply of Flu vaccine destined for U.S. markets was unfit for use due to a contamination problem at their British manufacturing plant (Flaherty A02). This contamination effectively reduced the U.S. supply of flu vaccine by half (Flaherty A02). unfortunately for consumers, though profitable to the distributors the drop in supply did not precipitate the demand for the vaccine.The quantity of Flu vaccine demanded in the U.S. was greater than the original supply let alone the reduced supply. The market price for the vaccine was between eight and nine dollars prior to the October announcement by Chiron, that its vaccine was contaminated, and soon afterwards doubled in price (Flaherty A02). By the eighth of October the vaccine was being offered to pharmacies at prices approaching ninety dollars per-dose a tenfold increase over the original price (Flaherty A02). The demand for the Flu vaccine is shown to be inelastic (the quantity demanded before the discovery of contamination was the entire supply (X) and after the announcement was the remaining quantity (X/2), part the price jumped from nine to ninety dollars or Ed = .41). According to the working capital Post the higher prices simply reflected the heightened demand for a scarce detail, though this is not the case, demand did not shift at all, notwithstanding supply shifted. Not all distributors took advantage of the supply shift as in the case of Stat Pharmaceuticals, which sold its vaccine for fifteen to thirty dollars per-dose.