Deal over Meningitis B vaccine?

It was given the go ahead a year ago, but negotiations to roll out the vaccine programme for Meningits B reached a deadlock over the price.

The drug company Novartis says the vaccine Bexsero should be about £75, the government said £5. Meanwhile campaigners say children are dying and suffering from an entirely preventable disease. But today there appeared to be some hope – the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline has bought out the vaccine arm of Novartis and in a phone call to the health secretary last week, their chief executive Sir Andrew Witty said let’s start talking again.

So although the health secretary hopes there will be a deal with GSK “very soon”, he insists the manufacturer has got to offer the “right price”.

There are about 1,700 cases of Meningitis B in the UK every year – it is fatal in 10 per cent of cases and can leave others with major disabilities.

Some questions do remain over the vaccine itself – it is not clear, for instance, how effectively Bexsero would stop the disease from spreading and how long it would offer protection. But since it has been approved – campaigners say it should be made available as soon as possible.