MARK COLVIN: The charity Medecins Sans Frontieres has accused the drug company Pfizer of ignoring the needs of children by overcharging for its pneumococcal vaccine in poor countries.
In a few hours MSF, or Doctors Without Borders, will lobby shareholders at Pfizer's general meeting to cap the vaccine price at $5.
Around the world, pneumonia kills about one child every 22 seconds, because many countries can't afford the vaccine.
Bridget Brennan reports.
BRIDGET BRENNAN: The pneumococcal vaccine fights pneumonia and it's widely available in Australia and the developed world.
Just a quarter of the millions of children who need the vaccine are able to get immunised - the biggest barrier is the cost of the vaccine.
The drug companies Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline have a duopoly on the vaccine.
Doctors Without Borders says last year, it was Pfizer's most lucrative vaccine, bringing the company almost $4.5 billion in sales.
Kate Elder is the Vaccines Policy Advisor for Medecins Sans Frontieres.
KATE ELDER: They are the only two companies that make this particular vaccine that we're calling for the price to be reduced on. That's one of the reasons as well why prices can remain so high. So when you have these very small groups of pharmaceutical companies producing these essential life-saving tools.
BRIDGET BRENNAN: Some developing countries get pneumonia vaccines donated from the global immunisation program, GAVI.
Other countries miss out, because they're not eligible for donations, and they also can't afford the vaccine themselves.
Wealthy countries like Australia pay less for the vaccine than places like the Philippines.
KATE ELDER: We can't really see how prices are being set, what country A is paying compared to country B. if countries don't know what their neighbours are being charged, they're in a very weak position for negotiating. And the pharmaceutical companies take great lengths to keep vaccine prices concealed.
BRIDGET BRENNAN: Doctors Without Borders wants Pfizer to cut the price of the pneumococcal virus to $5 per child in developing countries.
In New York in a few hours, Kate Elder from Medecins Sans Frontiers will take that proposition to Pfizer's annual shareholders meeting.
KATE ELDER: They have very deliberate tactics for how they keep prices high, it means that countries are unable to afford to protect their children against the number one killer of kids under five globally.
We have been frustrated with trying to negotiate a price for our patients over the past five years. It's not just numbers on paper, it's not just statistics of shareholder reports and how much money is being made. But the lack of access to pneumonia vaccine has very real consequences.
BRIDGET BRENNAN: Paediatrician Dr Nikola Morton from Sydney has recently returned from Pakistan, where she was working for Doctors Without Borders.
The vaccine was subsidised in Pakistan in 2012, but immunisation rates are low and Dr Morton saw many children die of pneumonia.
NIKOLA MORTON: Particularly in younger children, the effects can be quite disastrous, the damage to their lungs is too great. So we did see children who died from pneumonia or had very prolonged admissions during my time there.
BRIDGET BRENNAN: Dr Morton says she's frustrated the pneumococcal vaccine isn't widely available in developing nations.
NIKOLA MORTON: These children often live in quite poor conditions with poor nutritional status, which makes them particularly vulnerable. And then also, you know, if these children were in somewhere like Australia that has access to higher levels of care, then we would of also been able to save them.
So at times... yeah it was very frustrating and upsetting to see these children die from preventable diseases.
MARK COLVIN: Paediatrician Doctor Nicola Morton ending Bridget Brennan's report.
