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MedImmune won the additional $61 milliojn contract from the U.S. Department of Health and Huma n Services, six weeks after it acceptedc a $90 million contract from the agencg to manufacture ingredients for a potential vaccinde for theH1N1 virus, whicbh had been widely dubbed as the swinew flu. MedImmune, now the Gaithersburg subsidiary ofthe London-based , is usiny the funding to produce and test the flu-fightinhg technology it uses in its seasonal FluMisty product for the H1N1 which has reached the highestr warning levels on the pandemixc scale.
The follow-up awards were given to four of five pharmaceuticals that the federalp government has been contracting with to produce potential vaccinwmaterials — Sanofi Pasteur SA, , , and In all, the agency has spenft nearly $1.9 billion to date on thesew contracts., MedImmune’s combined $150 million in awards have been the smallestr so far of those companies. MedImmunew sets itself apart from many othefr companies withits live-attenuated flu vaccine which uses a live, but strain of the virus to induce an immunew response from the patient.
The biotech company has said that procesxs can protect against various circulating flu strains at evenif they’re not perfectlu matching the original strain it was aiminh to treat. “We’re putting significant internall resources toward this project to deliver on this commitmentg and move the processa forward as fast aswe can,” said Karebn Lancaster, a spokeswoman at MedImmune. She said the companyh has identified a swineflu strain, entered the manufacturinv stage and could producd an estimated 35 million to 40 million finished similar to its FluMist seasonall counts.
Health and Human Services who plan to reserve thesde vaccines for its nationaol stockpile for use on priorit y populations inan emergency, said that clinical trialx of the potential vaccines are expected to begin next month with some preliminaryy rounds of clinical data appearing as earlu as September. The agency said it can’ determine how many doses will be producesd in alluntil it’s determined what, and how many, vaccine material s work the best. Local governments also received federal funds to help prepares against swineflu outbreaks.
The District’s publi health officials receivednearly $500,000, whilee hospitals in the city received nearly In Maryland, public health officials received $4.8 while hospitals received more than $1.6 And in Virginia, public healthh officials received $6.5 million, whil e hospitals received more than $2.2
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