U.S. Army Buys $30 Million in Anthrax Shots

U.S. Army Buys $30 Million in Anthrax Shots
Fri January 2, 2004 08:33 PM ET

By Jim Wolf

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Defense Department announced on Friday a $29.7
million order for anthrax vaccine based on the assumption that a federal
judge's ban on mandatory inoculations will be reversed.

Privately held BioPort Corp. of Lansing, Michigan, was awarded the Army
order on Wednesday as part of a $245.6 million contract, the Pentagon said.

The move demonstrates confidence "we will resume the anthrax vaccination
program as it existed before the judge's order," said Bryan Whitman, a
Defense Department spokesman.

On Dec. 22 U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan barred the Pentagon from
"inoculating service members without their consent."

In a preliminary injunction, he ruled the vaccine used in the Pentagon's
mandatory program was an "investigational drug" being used for what was an
unapproved purpose.

The Pentagon said the next day it would administer the vaccine only on a
voluntary basis until the legal issues were sorted out.

On Tuesday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said the anthrax vaccine
was safe for use in protecting U.S. troops against inhaled exposure to the
potentially deadly bacteria.

The Bush administration then asked the court to lift the ban on mandatory
shots.

The administration also has asked for a stay of the order for all service
members except the six plaintiffs while the court weighs the government's
motion for a complete lifting of the ban.

Mark Zaid, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said the Army's order for the new
vaccine doses could amount to a case of fraud, waste and abuse.

"If the judge's decision stands, the Pentagon may have just wasted millions
of dollars," he said.

Defense officials say 1 million service members have been vaccinated since
the program started in 1998. Only about 10 have refused to take the shots
since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks against Washington and New York.

Anthrax is considered the top biological weapon threat. It can be
transmitted in three ways -- through inhalation of the spores, into a cut in
the skin, or by eating contaminated meat.

Inhaled anthrax is by far the deadliest form. In 2001 five Americans died
from anthrax inhaled from contaminated mail. Tweet