New anthrax vaccine doomed by lobbying

[Robbien]

Source: LATimes

America's sole supplier faced oblivion if its rival's product was adopted. It was time to call on political connections.
By David Willman, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 2, 2007

The existing vaccine often caused swollen arms and muscle and joint pain. Inoculation required six injections over 18 months, followed by yearly booster shots. The estimated shelf life was just three years.

. . .

The manufacturer, Emergent BioSolutions Inc. of Rockville, Md., prevailed in a bitter struggle with a rival company that was preparing what federal health officials expected to be a superior vaccine. The episode illustrates the clout wielded by well-connected lobbyists over billions in spending for the Bush administration's anti-terrorism program.

Emergent's rival, VaxGen Inc. of South San Francisco, had spent four years developing a new anthrax vaccine and had won an $877.5-million federal contract to deliver enough doses for 25 million people. The contract threatened Emergent's very existence. The old vaccine, its only moneymaker, would likely be obsolete if VaxGen succeeded.

Emergent responded by mobilizing more than 50 lobbyists, including former aides to Vice President Dick Cheney, to make the case that relying on the new vaccine was a gamble and that the nation's safety depended on buying more of Emergent's product.

The company and its allies in Congress ridiculed VaxGen and impugned the competence or motives of officials who supported the new vaccine. The lobbying effort damaged VaxGen's credibility with members of Congress and the Bush administration, a Los Angeles Times investigation found.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-anthrax2dec02,0,3465779,full.story?coll=la-home-center

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A reading of the full article can make one's blood boil. Don't understand why this investigation was released on a weekend. LATime investigative costs down the drain since few will see it.

[Demeter]

1. I Can't Understand the Anthrax Vaccine Zealotry, Myself

Unless someone is planning to use a weaponized form of anthrax in germ warfare, why subject anyone to vaccination?

And the only use of weaponized anthrax to date is the letters sent to those who opposed Dubya!

Makes you wonder.

[troubleinwinter]

2. Fascinating article about how we are being fucked over by lobbying.

[gulfcoastliberal]

3. That's our "free market" in action!

:sarcasm:

[starroute]

4. Raw Story had this 6 months ago

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Wellconnected_drug_company_obtained_anthrax_vaccine_0529.html

Well-connected drug company obtained anthrax vaccine contracts despite side effects
Julie Weisberg
Published: Tuesday May 29, 2007

Two former high-ranking health officials with close ties to the Bush administration helped a Michigan-based pharmaceutical company secure sole-source, multi-million dollar federal contracts for the purchase of its controversial anthrax vaccine, a RAW STORY investigation has found.

Last month, Emergent BioSolutions announced that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) intended to purchase more than 18 million doses of its Biothrax vaccine for the Strategic National Stockpile. The strategic stockpile is set aside for civilian use during a large-scale emergency, such as a bioterrorism attack or natural disaster. Once finalized, the contract will be the largest of its kind for Emergent’s anthrax vaccine.

BioThrax is the only FDA-licensed vaccine for anthrax in the United States. The Pentagon has used it for the military’s mandatory anthrax vaccination program for the last ten years, though not without problems. Although the military continues to publicly claim the vaccine is “safe and effective,” thousands of soldiers have suffered adverse reactions, ranging from mild to severe. . . .

Emergent BioSolutions had not entered a bid for the contract. However, over the next two years, Emergent would spend millions of dollars on a lobbying effort to discredit VaxGen and convince HHS that instead of focusing on a new vaccine, the department should purchase millions of doses of BioThrax for its civilian stockpile.

[Oilwellian]

5. Look who the Director of BioSolutions is....

Joe Allbaugh
Director

http://investors.emergentbiosolutions.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=202582&p=irol-govboard

[Riktor]

6. What's the point?

Anthrax should be the least of our concerns. It requires a bit of know-how to weaponize and deliver, and even then, it is not an airborne contageon. Thus, anthrax really isn't a "weapon of mass destruction".

If I were you, I'd be much, much more concerned with Bush's repeated slashing of the NIH budget, which has led to funding shortages in thousands of virology labs. In the meantime, we've got a nasty avian flu on the horizon and a drug-resistant strain of staff running willy-nilly through our school systems. The lethality of these bugs outstrips anthrax by leaps and bounds, and the people who could potentially save the show have their hands tied behind their backs because Dubya can't wrap his head around the New York Times, much less biochemistry.

[Robbien]

7. The point is not anthrax, the point is lobbying influence

In this instance the company being screwed was making a better anthrax vaccine. The lobbying influence stopped it in it tracks.

So much good science is being stopped by the flat earthers in this administration. It appears any good science which manages to squeak past the flat earthers is being killed by lobbying.

[DeepModem Mom]

8. OMG! A blood-boiler, indeed! K&R