http://www.friendsofliberty.com/jimrarey/2002/012802.htm
MEDIUM RARE
By Jim Rarey
January 23, 2002
WHO CONTROLS ANTHRAX VACCINE BOTTLER?
It appears that Bioport, the sole manufacturer of
anthrax vaccine in the
U.S., has cleared the first of three hurdles toward
resuming shipments of
its vaccine. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has
announced approval
of Bioport’s revamped production facilities.
The FDA has not allowed shipments of the vaccine by
Bioport since 1998 when
it bought the laboratory from the State of Michigan.
The FDA found numerous
problems in Bioport’s production facilities including
contamination,
fluctuations in potency, inadequate record keeping,
mislabeling of product,
and intractable problems in the bottling of the
product.
At the suggestion of the FDA, when it became apparent
Bioport’s bottling
process would not be approved, Bioport (in early 2001)
entered into a
contract with Hollister-Stier Laboratories (HSL) of
Spokane, Washington to
bottle the vaccine.
Hollister-Stier claims to be the world’s largest
producer of medicines for
allergies holding a 20% market share of those
products.
There evidently was a prior association between the
two companies. In the
fall of 2000 the FDA (in a single communication)
announced the revocation
of the licenses of Bioport and Hollister-Stier to
manufacture "Polyvalent
Bacterial Vaccines" (at Hollister-Stier) and
specific vaccines at Bioport
for pertussis (generally known as whooping cough),
diphtheria and tetanus
which fall into the Polyvalent Bacterial Vaccine
category.
The FDA has a curious procedure where it notifies a
company of intent to
revoke a license and then allows the company to
request the revocation thus
letting the company claim surrendering of the license
was voluntary. This
procedure was followed with both companies.
Before the anthrax vaccine can be shipped,
Hollister-Stier must also
receive FDA approval for its operation and the vaccine
must be tested and
pass FDA scrutiny for purity, potency and sterility.
The company was founded in 1921 by chemist Guy
Hollister and Robert E.
Stier, M.D., partly as a result of the two developing
a vaccine for Mrs.
Hollister’s "summer cold" which they
discovered was an allergy to grasses
in the area. The company prospered and became a major
force in allergy
research and treatment.
In 1958 Cutter Laboratories bought the company, which
in turn was absorbed
by the German pharmaceutical giant Bayer AG in 1974.
For the next
twenty-five years the company operated as part of
Bayer.
Bayer is the manufacturer of the drug Cipro, which
until October of last
year was the only drug recommended by the Center for
Disease Control (CDC)
for the treatment of anthrax. Bayer has made millions
of dollars on the
drug, partly because it was paying five makers of
generic equivalents 25 to
30 million dollars each per year to not ask for FDA
approval.
In June of 1999 Hollister-Stier was cut loose from
Bayer and once again
became an independent company, so their website says.
During the next year,
$7.5 million was spent upgrading the facility.
So who controls Hollister-Stier? If you subscribe to
the second golden
rule, (he who has the gold makes the rules) you need
to know from what
source the company gets it funding. That’s not an easy
task.
In June of 2000, Hollister-Stier formalized a
"strategic alliance" with
Biogenetic Ventures, Inc. a newly formed Spokane
–based company that
invests in the development and commercialization of
emerging scientific
research. Under the agreement, Biogenetic Ventures
will provide funding for
research and product development, plus expertise to
license and acquire
intellectual property. Hollister-Stier will secure
regulatory approvals,
e.g. from the FDA and provide for the manufacture,
marketing and
distribution of new products.
Evidently, although not disclosed in the announcement,
Biogenetic Ventures
will own the technology on new products and either
license it back to or
share royalties with Hollister-Stier as it does in
another strategic
alliance announced at the same time (the third in three
months).
Biogenetic Ventures was founded two years ago by Peter
Allison specifically
to provide venture capital for high-tech and biotech
firms. Allison says he
has developed extensive relationships with venture
capital firms in all of
the high-tech corridors of the United States through a
company he claims to
have founded named Buffalo Capital. (More about this
company later.)
But Biogenetic Ventures evidently does not provide the
money itself. It
funnels all prospects through another company founded
by Allison, Allison
Johnson Venture Partners, Inc. (AJVP). This company is
a partnership
between Allison and Ron Johnson, a former staff
accountant with Lockheed
Corp. who founded the Silicon Valley Consulting Group
in 1991 and sits on
the boards of several high-tech companies and
universities.
The Allison/Johnson partnership describes its mission
on its website, "AJVP
maintains a comprehensive inventory of investors,
including high net worth
individuals, venture funds, institutional investors
and corporate partners
who actively seek investing opportunities. When our
client companies are
properly prepared and positioned, we reach into this
community to raise the
financing required to realize the objectives of the
corporation."
Also on its website is a description of a
comprehensive seven-step
screening process to which it subjects potential
clients seeking funding.
It is not known if Biogenetic Ventures is the only
company referring
potential clients to AJVP.
At this point the money trail reaches a dead end. It
is not known what
mechanism is used to funnel funds to clients through
AJVP and its
affiliates. Other than Allison’s reference to Buffalo
Capital, no
"investors" are identified.
Even the involvement of Buffalo Capital is
questionable. An extensive
search of databases with several search engines failed
to turn up any
association of Allison’s name with Buffalo Capital
other than the one on
his website and stories based on that information. Oh,
there are plenty of
references to Buffalo Capital, most of them dealing
with enforcement
actions against the company.
According to the information available on the Internet
including court
records and news accounts, Buffalo Capital was founded
by John Hampton
Hickman III. The mysterious Hickman was described in
the venerable Marquis
Who’s Who as, "an entrepreneurial industrialist,
investment banker and
educator. Buffalo Capital Corp. was called his
personal holding company.
Buffalo Capital’s investments were, as described by
Allison, in high-tech
and biotech companies. Hickman had numerous
subsidiaries including seven
named Buffalo Capital I through VII.
In 1994 Hickman appeared in Vancouver, British
Columbia and proceeded to
ingratiate himself into the social elite controlling
the Vancouver Stock
Exchange (VSE). He managed to get himself appointed as
Chairman of a
struggling software firm, Motion Works, by promising
to raise $10 million
to keep the firm afloat. When he proceeded to hire
friends and relatives at
handsome salaries and awarded himself a large salary
and stock options,
several directors petitioned the VSE to investigate
Hickman.
The VSE, which was rife with corruption at that time,
took no action until
it received anonymously information on a scam Hickman
had pulled in the
United States.
There is a fascinating story about the VSE corruption
including Mafia
involvement in drug transactions, money laundering,
securities fraud,
murder and suicide in connection with the stock
exchange. It can be found
at the May edition of the Globe and Mail’s Report on
Business at
http://www.robmagazine.com/archive/ROBmay/cover1.html
(Note: the URL is case sensitive.)
In the United States Hickman, who was a trustee of a
Florida utility’s
pension fund, had transferred over $700,000 out of the
pension fund into
his Buffalo Capital Corporation. A bankruptcy judge
had lodged a judgment
for $3.8 million (the amount embezzled plus triple
damages) against
Hickman, three of his Buffalo Capital companies and
four trusts in
Hickman’s name.
When this information surfaced in Vancouver, Hickman
and his family
employees resigned from Motion Works. The creditor
under the bankruptcy
judgment obtained an injunction freezing Hickman’s
assets in both the U.S.
and Canada.
Although Hickman had not contested the bankruptcy
award, he chose to fight
against the freeze of his assets. He was scheduled to
give a deposition
detailing his assets and their locations but before
that could take place,
he was found dead in his car in the garage, apparently
a suicide from
carbon monoxide poisoning.
In May of 1999, the same month that Peter Allison
incorporated Biogenetic
Ventures in Washington State, Buffalo Capital changed
its name to M&A West
Inc. (MAWI). It obtained listing in the over the
counter exchange (OTC) and
on the Boston Stock Exchange.
However the name change did little to stem the
company’s troubles. After
losing a couple of trademark infringement suits, the
investing community
was stunned when the SEC charged MAWI with providing
false and fraudulent
financial statements to obtain listing on the
exchanges. MAWI was delisted
from the Boston exchange and had to restate its
earnings for several
accounting periods.
In January 2001 the CEO and CFO of MAWI resigned.
Patrick R. Greene was
named interim CEO. Greene has had his own problems. An
online publishing
company (PinkMonkey.com) Greene founded was accused by
the SEC of issuing a
fraudulent press release that caused PinkMonkey’s
common stock to rise
950%. Greene agreed to pay a $20,000 penalty.
Perhaps the death knell sounded for MAWI nee Buffalo
Capital in August of
last year when a Northern California grand jury
returned an 82 count
criminal indictment against two principals in a MAWI
subsidiary. The pair
is accused of running a classic "pump and
dump" scam involving false press
releases and financial statements to hype various
stocks. The scam involved
MAWI and two subsidiaries, Virtual Lender.com and
Digital Bridge, Inc. The
indictment alleges the pair, and others, netted over
$15 million from the
scam while investors lost more than $100 million.
But what does all of this have to do with the bottler
of the anthrax
vaccine, Hollister Stier? Perhaps nothing. There is no
evidence, other than
Peter Allison’s claims that he has had anything to do
with a company named
Buffalo Capital Corp. However, given the sordid
reputation of Buffalo
Capital, it beggars belief that Allison would choose to
associate himself
with that name unless he was involved.
At any rate, Hollister Stier is receiving money from
an unknown investor or
investors unless Allison chooses to reveal the
identities. That comes
pretty close to the definition of money laundering.
Permission is granted to reproduce this article in its
entirety.
The author is a free lance writer based in Romulus,
Michigan. He is a
former newspaper editor and investigative reporter, a
retired customs
administrator and accountant, and a student of history
and the U.S.
Constitution.
If you would like to receive Medium Rare articles
directly, please contact
us at jimrarey@provide.net.
Although not necessary, we would appreciate an
indication of the city
and/or state or country (If outside the USA) in which
you are located to
give us an idea as to where our articles are being
received.
ALL
INFORMATION, DATA, AND MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR
GENERAL INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS REFLECTING THE
KNOWLEDGE OR OPINIONS OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED
AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR LEGAL ADVICE. THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO
VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU
ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.