Well-connected drug company obtained anthrax vaccine contracts despite side effects

[democraticinsurgent]

Source: Raw Story

Two former high-ranking health officials with close ties to the Bush administration helped a Michigan-based pharmaceutical company secure sole-source, multi-million dollar federal contracts for the purchase of its controversial anthrax vaccine, a RAW STORY investigation has found.

Last month, Emergent BioSolutions announced that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) intended to purchase more than 18 million doses of its Biothrax vaccine for the Strategic National Stockpile. The strategic stockpile is set aside for civilian use during a large-scale emergency, such as a bioterrorism attack or natural disaster. Once finalized, the contract will be the largest of its kind for Emergent’s anthrax vaccine.

Last year, the Department of Homeland Security granted BioThrax special protections under its Support Anti-Terrorism by Fostering Effective Technology Act, or SAFETY Act. It was the first vaccine to receive protection under the Act. According to an Emergent press release, the act certifies BioThrax is an “approved product for homeland security” and provides significant liability protection in the event the vaccine is administered to civilians in a terrorist attack.

According to company documents filed by Emergent BioSolutions with the Security and Exchange Commission, two former officials with the Department of Health and Human Services -- Jerome Hauer, who was Acting Assistant Secretary of the Office of Public Health and Emergency Preparedness in 2002-03, and Dr. Louis Sullivan, who served as HHS Secretary under former President George H.W. Bush -- worked as paid lobbyists in an aggressive and well-connected lobbying effort to secure the Biothrax contracts.

Read more: http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Wellconnected_drug_company_obtained_anthrax_vaccine_0529.html

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Figures: Jerome Hauer, central 9/11 mystery figure and Joe Albaugh, Mike Brown's predecessor at Homeland Security. Rotten. Rotten to the core.

[superconnected]

1. I guess I should fein suprise

[BornagainDUer]

2. Hauer arranged John O'Neils death.

IMHO.