http://www.hirehealth.com/ci/servlet/com.ci.news.DisplayNews?NEWS_ID=148254
Thursday, December 12, 2002
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NEW YORK (AFX) - As approved producers of the smallpox vaccine, Baxter International Inc, Acambis PLC, Wyeth Pharmaceutical Inc, and Aventis are all positioned to benefit from US President George Bush's new plan to make smallpox vaccines available to all Americans on a voluntary basis.
According to a spokeswoman for the US Centers for Disease Control, initially a joint venture of Baxter and Acambis will be the major beneficiary of the plan.
In late 2001, the joint venture won a US government contract to build up a stockpile of smallpox vaccine to protect the US population in the event the virus is used as a terror weapon.
The spokeswoman said that by the end of this year the Baxter-Acambis joint venture is expected to have produced 286 mln doses of the smallpox vaccine, a sufficient amount to vaccinate the entire US population against the nearly-extinct virus.
Acambis, based in the UK, is 20 pct owned by Chicago-based Baxter and has US operations in Cambridge, Ma.
A spokesman for Wyeth did not immediately return phone calls to discuss how the new White House plan might impact that company.
Under the Bush plan, the entire US population will have the opportunity to choose to be vaccinated by some time in 2004, while US military personnel and emergency workers will begin receiving smallpox vaccines in 2003.
leslie.wines@afxnews.com
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