Web Site Promotes Flu Shot Alternative

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Reports of price gouging have subsided after a brief flurry in October when the USA lost half its expected vaccine supply. But sales pitches for substitutes have not.

The Web site, CanadianPrescriptionDrugstore[] charges $19.95 to “reserve” Fluviral flu vaccine from Canada’s ID Biomedical that “may be available” if the Food and Drug Administration approves it. A 10-dose vial, which could be shared “with relatives or friends,” runs $349, including shipping, the Web site says. That’s more than triple what a dose cost before the shortage.

A potential catch: The $19.95 is non-refundable even if the company cannot fill the order or the FDA never approves Fluviral. “It’s a buyer-beware type of option,” says the FBI’s John Hambrick at the Internet Crime Complaint Center.

The FDA is expected to decide this week whether to allow the importation of 1.2 million Fluviral doses — along with 4 million to 5 million doses of other flu vaccine made in other countries. ID Biomedical sold about 500,000 Fluviral doses to private distributors in Canada. It says that might be where CanadianPrescriptionDrugstore, which refers Internet customers to licensed pharmacies, is getting vaccine.

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