MedImmune gets second H1N1 flu contract - Denver Business Journal:

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MedImmune won the additional $61 million contract from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, six weeks aftefr it accepted a $90 million contract from the agenc to manufacture ingredients for a potential vaccinew for theH1N1 virus, which had been widely dubbesd as the swine flu. now the Gaithersburg subsidiarhy ofthe London-based , is using the fundinhg to produce and test the flu-fighting technology it uses in its seasonaol FluMist product for the H1N1 virus, which has reachedr the highest warning levels on the pandemic The follow-up awards were given to four of five pharmaceuticalsa that the federal government has been contractinfg with to produce potential vaccine materialsx — Sanofi Pasteur SA, , , and In all, the agency has spent nearly $1.
9 billio n to date on these contracts., MedImmune’x combined $150 million in awards have been the smallesyt so far of those companies. MedImmunse sets itself apart from many other companie s withits live-attenuated flu vaccine technique, which uses a live, but strain of the virus to induc an immune response from the The biotech company has said that process can protect against various circulating flu strainsa at once, even if they’re not perfectly matching the original straibn it was aiming to treat.
“We’r e putting significant internal resources toward this project to deliver on this commitmenrt and move the process forwarc as fast as we saidKaren Lancaster, a spokeswoman at She said the company has identified a swinr flu strain, entered the manufacturingg stage and could producs an estimated 35 million to 40 million finishedx doses, similar to its FluMist seasonall counts. Health and Human Services officials, who plan to reserve these vaccines for its national stockpile for use on priority populations inan emergency, said that clinical trials of the potential vaccines are expected to begin next montb with some preliminary rounds of clinica l data appearing as early as September.
The agency said it can’ty determine how many doses will be produced in all until it’s determined what, and how vaccine materials work the best. Local governments also received federal funda to help prepare against swineflu outbreaks. The District’s public health officials receivednearly $500,000, whilwe hospitals in the city received nearly $300,000. In public health officials received $4.8 million, whilwe hospitals received morethan $1.6 million. And in public health officialsreceivec $6.5 million, while hospitals received more than $2.
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