ABSTRACT

The BMJ’s editor, Fiona Godlee, recently challenged the UK government to publish the price it pays for vaccines, including the new vaccine Cervarix, which helps prevent cervical cancer (BMJ 2011; 343: d6239, doi: 10.1136/bmj. d6239). Price transparency is not just a matter for the United Kingdom, however: it is a point of vigorous debate and growing urgency in countries around the world. 1 Until recently, only a handful of nations—notably the United States, through its large public sector vaccine programme for children, run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—published the prices that they were paying for vaccines. Yet the questions of how much taxpayers’ money is being spent on vaccines, and which companies are winning the public tenders, is becoming ever more important as science and industry develop a new generation of life saving vaccines.