Delivery of New Anthrax Vaccine Delayed

Pharmaceutical company VaxGen Inc. said yesterday that delivery of a new anthrax vaccine to the U.S. government would be delayed until late 2006, Reuters reported (see GSN, June 17).

VaxGen attributed the delay to tightened requirements for the product.

Delivery of the vaccine for U.S. emergency stockpiles is now expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2006, the company said. Original delivery was scheduled for the first half of next year.

“We are revising methods for assessing product quality. We also will be making improvements in the raw materials prior to manufacturing the vaccine,” said company spokesman Paul Laland, who said the vaccine has performed “very well” in animal and human tests.

VaxGen said it plans dosing trials early next year (Reuters, Nov. 1).

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