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Two Firms Receive Anthrax Vaccine Contracts The United States awarded contracts this week to two firms to acquire 6 million doses of new anthrax vaccines. VaxGen Inc. of California received $80.3 million and Avecia Group of Manchester, England, was awarded $71.3 million. The contracts, issued by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, order each firm to continue development of its version of an improved vaccine and to manufacture 3 million doses. The contracts keep both companies in the running for an expected $1.4 billion contract to produce and maintain 60 million anthrax vaccine doses by 2013. That program is envisioned in the Bush administration’s Project BioShield, which has been approved by the U.S. House of Representatives and is now under consideration by the Senate (Bernadette Tansey, San Francisco Chronicle, Oct. 2). Under the VaxGen contract, the firm will test the vaccine’s efficacy by determining if it protects animals infected with anthrax. Human studies of the vaccine’s safety began earlier this year and all the volunteers at four locations have received their immunizations (see GSN, May 28). In a press release, VaxGen said it could manufacture 100 million doses of the bulk vaccine at its existing production facility (VaxGen release, Sept. 30).
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