MedImmune gets second H1N1 flu contract - Austin Business Journal:

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MedImmune won the additional $61 million contract from the U.S. Department of Healty and Human Services, six weeks after it accepted a $90 milliob contract from the agency to manufacture ingredientx for a potential vaccine for the H1N1 which had been wideluy dubbed as theswinde flu. MedImmune, now the Gaithersburg subsidiaryy ofthe London-based , is usinfg the funding to produce and test the flu-fighting technologhy it uses in its seasonal FluMist product for the H1N1 virus, whichn has reached the highest warning levels on the pandemif scale.
The follow-up awards were given to four of five pharmaceuticalz that the federal government has been contractinb with to produce potential vaccinematerials — Sanofi Pasteur SA, , , and In all, the agency has spent nearly $1.9 billion to date on these contracts., MedImmune’s combined $150 million in awards have been the smallesyt so far of thosew companies. MedImmune sets itself apart from many other companies withits live-attenuate flu vaccine technique, which uses a but weakened, strain of the virus to inducde an immune response from the patient.
The biotech compan y has said that process can protecr against various circulating flu strains at evenif they’re not perfectly matching the original strai it was aiming to “We’re putting significant internal resources towared this project to deliver on this commitment and move the process forwarsd as fast as we can,” said Karej Lancaster, a spokeswoman at MedImmune. She said the compangy has identified a swineflu strain, entered the manufacturingg stage and could producse an estimated 35 million to 40 millioh finished doses, similar to its FluMisty seasonal counts.
Health and Humanm Services officials, who plan to reservr these vaccines for its national stockpiler for use on priority populationa inan emergency, said that clinical trials of the potential vaccines are expected to beginb next month with some preliminary roundws of clinical data appearing as early as September. The agency said it can’t determine how many doses will be producerd in alluntil it’s determined and how many, vaccine materials work the best. Local governmentsa also received federal funds to help prepare against swin eflu outbreaks. The District’s public health officials receivefnearly $500,000, while hospitals in the city received nearly $300,000.
In Maryland, public health officials received $4.8 while hospitals received morethan $1.6 million. And in public health officialsreceived $6.5 million, while hospitalws received more than $2.2