Business brisk as Americans stream to Canada for flu shots
Americans are streaming into Canada -- in some cases by the boatload -- in search of flu vaccine.
With a US shortage caused by contaminated vaccine and flu season approaching, business has been brisk at Canadian clinics and doctors' offices along the border from British Columbia to as far east as New Brunswick.
A Canadian Internet pharmacy is working with a half-dozen physicians in Montreal to offer weekend flu-shot tours to New Yorkers. The price is $75 for a medical exam and inoculation. Lodging and meals, which can be arranged by a travel agency working with the pharmacy, are extra.
An even more novel operation is a "flu cruise" ferry ride from Seattle to Victoria, British Columbia. For $105, passengers get a round-trip ticket and a flu shot dockside in Victoria. The 330-passenger ferries have been full all week, said the operator, Clipper Navigation Inc. On Sunday, patients determined to get their shots braved 6- to 8-foot seas and 40-knot winds in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
"There's this fear factor" that is motivating people to travel to Canada for shots, said Darrell Bryan, vice president and general manager for Clipper. "We have a lot of seniors, a number of people with walkers and wheelchairs. We are very sensitive to their needs in that open body of water."
To avoid being accused of price gouging, the ferry line dropped the price from the normal $115 round-trip fare. The company plans to easily make up the difference with increased volume.
"It's creative marketing. . . . They are clearly fulfilling a need," said Suzanne Germain, spokeswoman for the Vancouver Island Health Authority, part of Canada's healthcare system. Still, "it's one of the most bizarre things we've ever seen," she said.
Canadian health agencies said there are two categories of vaccine supply: one that is tightly controlled by the national and provincial governments for the elderly and other people at risk of falling gravely ill from the flu, and another, more open market where doctors and clinics are free to order vaccine direct from suppliers and sell it to Canadians and noncitizens at an unregulated price.
A Vancouver clinic network, Vancouver Coastal Health, has given shots to 225 Americans and expects to inoculate 250 more this weekend, said spokeswoman Viviana Zanocco. The trip from Seattle by car is three hours.
In some respects, the business reflects the importation of Canadian drugs by Americans looking for low-cost alternatives to brand-name prescriptions. But when it comes to flu vaccine, mail-order channels are not feasible. The vaccine must be kept refrigerated and is supposed to be injected by a healthcare professional. The vaccine trips to Canada also differ in another way: They are legal.
The AARP, a nonprofit group that represents Americans over 50, did not have a position yesterday on Canadian vaccines. It says seniors who cannot find flu vaccine should settle for pneumonia inoculations, which will protect them against the gravest health risks of flu. The group is setting up a toll-free number for people to call if they believe they have been cheated on flu vaccine price.
The Food and Drug Administration did not respond to a request for comment. The Bush administration has been working to locate additional stockpiles of vaccine after a British plant operated by the government's contractor, Chiron Corp., was found to be producing contaminated doses.
Christopher Rowland can be reached at crowland@globe.com.
