Global Security Newswire

Maryland biopharmaceutical firm Emergent BioSolutions said today it had received a federal contract worth as much as $107 million to prepare for significantly higher production levels of its anthrax vaccine (see GSN, June 29).

The deal signed with the Health and Human Services Department's Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority calls for Emergent "to develop and obtain regulatory approval for large-scale manufacturing of BioThrax" at a production plant in Lansing, Mich., according to a press release.

The agreement would provide the company with $54.6 million over two years and includes an option for a three-year extension that would raise the contract value to $107 million.

Emergent has developed a plan for annual production of 26 million doses of the anthrax vaccine at the Michigan site. The firm presently can manufacture 7 million to 8 million doses each year (Emergent BioSolutions release, July 14).

The plant could even be augmented to produce between 50 million and 60 million doses each year of BioThrax, the only anthrax vaccine licensed for use in the United States, Emergent President Daniel Abdun-Nabi told the Washington Post.

The company plans to start manufacturing test samples at the plant in late 2011 and hopes to seek Food and Drug Administration approval for the site and its systems by 2013.

"We expect that this investment by the government in increasing capacity will ultimately lead to large-scale procurement contracts," Abdun-Nabi said.

The deal would give the United States access to greater amounts of the anthrax vaccine, said BARDA chief Robin Robinson. "Our preparedness for anthrax will be much greater," he said.

Emergent also expects to sell its product to other nations.

"We do see opportunities internationally. We are receiving calls," according to Abdun-Nabi. "There is increased awareness of the threat" (Marjorie Censer, Washington Post, July 14).