Safety

Government to acquire experimental anthrax vaccine

Hospital Safety Connection, March 17, 2004

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The federal government plans to stockpile enough doses of an experimental anthrax vaccine to inoculate 25 million people, the Associated Press reports.

The safety of the new vaccine is still being tested, but the government last week opened bidding for production of three times as many doses as initially planned.

The current anthrax vaccine works well, but it requires six shots over an 18-month period plus an annual booster, and it causes side effects.

Two companies, VaxGen Inc. of California and Avecia of Britain, already have government contracts to produce a certain amount of the experimental vaccine. First-stage testing is under way.

By law, the government must open bidding for the rest of the vaccine's production to any interested company, but VaxGen and Avecia are certainly frontrunners for the new contracts.



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