Vaccine hesitancy vs the Business of Vaccines

The landscape in vaccine manufacturing has changed radically over the past 30 years. In 1967, over a dozen licensed vaccine manufacturers operated in the United States alone. This number has since collapsed through mergers and exits to barely a handful. Low profit margins, the introduction in 1980 of good manufacturing practices (GMP) to vaccine production (which caused manufacturing costs to skyrocket) and the specter of liability all contributed to the contraction in the industry. Five companies—Chiron (Emeryville, CA, USA), GlaxoSmithKline (Brentford, UK), Merck (Whitehouse Station, NJ, USA), Sanofi Pasteur (Lyon, France) and Wyeth (Madison, NJ, USA)—account for close to 90%…