Report: Government to Stockpile Anthrax Vaccine

The U.S. government has decided to order an additional 75 million doses of an experimental anthrax vaccine, enough to inoculate 25 million people in case of a biological attack, The Washington Post reported on Friday.

The U.S. government has decided to order an additional 75 million doses of an experimental anthrax vaccine, enough to inoculate 25 million people in case of a biological attack, The Washington Post reported on FridayBrisbane, California-based biotechnology company VaxGen Inc. and unlisted British chemical specialty firm Avecia won contracts to make early stockpiles of the vaccine and were likely to bid soon on larger contracts, the newspaper said.Citing newly released bidding documents, The Washington Post said the government would order 75 million doses of an experimental vaccine on top of the 2 million doses already on order. That would create a stockpile large enough to cover as much as 9 percent of the U.S. population, according to the Post.The stockpile is projected to cost at least $700 million on top of nearly $200 million already spent, the newspaper said, citing a congressional report.VaxGen and Avecia are racing to scale up their factories for rapid vaccine production, the Post reported.VaxGen announced in January that U.S. regulators would review its experimental anthrax vaccine on an accelerated basis.Anthrax-laced letters sent in the weeks following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks killed five people and sickened 13 others in the United States.(Source: Reuters Health, March 2004)