NEW YORK — Children in poor countries are going without pneumonia vaccine because of the high price of the shots, manufactured by pharmaceutical company Pfizer, members of humanitarian group Medicins Sans Frontiers (Doctors Without Borders) said at a rally Thursday outside Pfizer’s headquarters in Manhattan.

About 1 million children die each year worldwide because of the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, making it more deadly than malaria or tuberculosis.

“Children are especially vulnerable to this infectious disease,” said Veronica Ades, a physician with MSF who attended the rally. “Anybody who cares about children should know it is important to prevent this extremely deadly illness.”

To bring attention to the issue, about two dozen MSF members and supporters brought clear cases of $17 million in fake $100 bills to the building and tried to deliver it to CEO Ian Read. MSF says Pfizer generates $17 million daily from pneumonia vaccine sales. MSF spokeswoman Kate Elder urged the company to reduce the price of the vaccine to $5 dollars for a full course of treatment, estimating that even its lowest price, offered to poor countries, is about $10 for a full course.

Pfizer spokeswoman Sally Beatty thanked the demonstrators for raising awareness of healthcare for children and said the company works with charities to provide it at a reduced price.

According to the CDC, Pfizer's pediatric pneumonia vaccine treatment, Prevnar 13, costs $159 per dose at full price, or more than $450 per child for a full course of treatment.

"Prices vary by market depending on the healthcare system and health needs of local populations," Beatty said in an email to Al Jazeera. She did not provide a global average price.

In a previous statement sent in response to the MSF protest, Pfizer said that it sells the pneumonia vaccine to the world's poorest for a tenth of what it does to some developed nations.

MSF says it's still too expensive. Some countries with national health systems that bargain for medicine with drug makers can't afford to purchase the vaccine for their citizens, Elder said.