U.S. Orders 20 Million Doses of New Smallpox Vaccine

The U.S. Health and Human Services Department has ordered 20 million doses of a next-generation smallpox vaccine, the agency announced yesterday (see GSN, April 17).

The agency signed a $500 million contract with Denmark’s Bavarian Nordic for production and delivery of the modified vaccinia Ankara.

The treatment would provide protection following a smallpox outbreak for the estimated 10 million people in the United States who have impaired immune systems and could suffer potentially life-threatening side effects through use of the standard vaccine.

The modified vaccine uses a weakened version of the vaccinia virus, rather than the live, replicating form employed in the existing shots.

“To protect ourselves from the remote but extremely grave threat of a deliberate release of smallpox virus, we need vaccines that can be safely given to all Americans, including individuals with weakened immune systems,” HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt said in a press release.  “Acquiring a stockpile of this new smallpox vaccine is a key step toward protecting even more members of the American public against a smallpox release” (U.S. Health and Human Services Department release, June 4).

The agency could pay Bavarian Nordic up to $1.6 billion if it decides to buy another 60 million vaccine doses and to back further clinical studies, Reuters reported (Reuters/AlertNet, June 4).

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