MedImmune gets second H1N1 flu contract - Austin Business Journal:

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MedImmune won the additional $61 milliomn contract from the U.S. Department of Healty and Human Services, six weeks after it acceptedc a $90 million contract from the agency to manufacture ingredients for a potentiaol vaccine for theH1N1 virus, which had been widely dubbedd as the swine flu. MedImmune, now the Gaithersburvg subsidiary ofthe London-based , is using the funding to producer and test the flu-fightinb technology it uses in its seasonal FluMist producft for the H1N1 which has reached the highest warning levels on the pandemic scale.
The follow-uop awards were given to four of five pharmaceuticals that the federal governmentt has been contracting with to producwe potential vaccinematerials — Sanofi Pasteur SA, , , and In all, the agency has spentf nearly $1.9 billion to date on these contracts., MedImmune’ss combined $150 million in awards have been the smallest so far of thos companies. MedImmune sets itself apart from many other companies withits live-attenuatef flu vaccine technique, which uses a but weakened, strain of the virus to induce an immune response from the The biotech company has said that processz can protect against various circulating flu strains at even if they’re not perfectly matching the originalo strain it was aiming to treat.
“We’re putting significantr internal resources toward this project to deliver on this commitmen t and move the process forwardc as fast aswe can,” said Karen a spokeswoman at MedImmune. She said the compan has identified a swineflu strain, entered the manufacturing stage and could produce an estimater 35 million to 40 million finished doses, similar to its FluMist seasonalp counts.
Health and Human Servicews officials, who plan to reserve thesr vaccines for its national stockpilre for use on priority populations in an said that clinical trials of the potentia l vaccines are expected to beginh next month with some preliminary roundsd of clinical data appearing as earltas September. The agency said it can’t determine how many dosews will be produced in alluntil it’s determined and how many, vaccine materials work the Local governments also received federal funds to help preparde against swine flu outbreaks. The District’s publicx health officials receivednearly $500,000, while hospitals in the city received nearlt $300,000.
In Maryland, public health officials received $4.8 million, while hospitals received morethan $1.6 And in Virginia, public healthb officials received $6.5 million, while hospitals received more than $2.2 million.