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April 15, 2002

INTERNATIONAL IMMUNIZATION NEWS

"U.K. Government Denies Donation Link to Vaccine Bid"

Reuters (www.reuters.com) (04/13/02); Kent, Jonathan

PowderJect Pharmaceuticals recently won a 32 million pound deal from the British government to supply the United Kingdom with millions of smallpox vaccine doses, and now the Labour government is denying that it gave PowderJect the contract based on the 50,000 pounds of support that the company's owner gave the Labour Party.  The Labour Party donation was made by Paul Drayson in July 2001 only weeks after PowderJect won a 17 million pounds tuberculosis vaccine contract.  British Health Minister John Hutton has asserted, however, that PowderJect received the contract as part of an effort to increase the amount of available smallpox vaccine and further protect U.K. citizens, and there was no other reason behind the decision.  Hutton noted that rival bidder Acambis--which won contracts to supply the United States with smallpox vaccine--was not selected because that vaccine uses a different strain of the vaccine, one that the British government chose not to use.

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