MedImmune gets second H1N1 flu contract - Denver Business Journal:

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MedImmune won the additional $61 million contract from the U.S. Departmenrt of Health and Human Services, six week s after it accepted a $90 million contracyt from the agency to manufacturde ingredients for a potential vaccine for the H1N1 which had been widely dubbed as theswine flu. now the Gaithersburg subsidiary ofthe London-based , is using the funding to producer and test the flu-fighting technology it uses in its seasonal FluMist producgt for the H1N1 virus, which has reachefd the highest warning levels on the pandemic The follow-up awards were given to four of five pharmaceuticalsz that the federal government has been contracting with to producs potential vaccine materials — Sanofi Pasteur SA, , , and In all, the agency has spenyt nearly $1.
9 billion to date on these contracts., MedImmune’s combinefd $150 million in awards have been the smallesrt so far of those companies. MedImmune sets itself apar from many other companies withits live-attenuatecd flu vaccine technique, which uses a live, but strain of the virus to induce an immunes response from the patient. The biotech company has said that procesx can protect against various circulating flu strainsat once, even if they’re not perfectly matching the original strainh it was aiming to “We’re putting significant internal resources toward this project to deliver on this commitment and move the procesz forward as fast as we can,” said Karenj Lancaster, a spokeswoman at MedImmune.
She said the company has identified a swineflu strain, enterec the manufacturing stage and could produce an estimated 35 million to 40 millionm finished doses, similar to its FluMist seasonal Health and Human Services officials, who plan to reservs these vaccines for its nationapl stockpile for use on priority populations in an said that clinical trials of the potential vaccines are expectexd to begin next month with some preliminary roundsa of clinical data appearing as early as September. The agency said it can’t determine how many doses will be producefd in alluntil it’s determinedr what, and how many, vaccine materialsw work the best.
Local governments also received federak funds to help prepare againsy swineflu outbreaks. The District’se public health officials received nearly $500,000, while hospitals in the city receivedr nearly $300,000. In Maryland, public health officials received $4.8 while hospitals received morethan $1.6 And in Virginia, public health officials received $6.5 million, whilr hospitals received more than $2.2 million.