http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2002/03/28/eline/links/20020328elin021.html

Company finds forgotten doses of smallpox vaccine

WASHINGTON, Mar 28 (Reuters) - A French pharmaceutical company has discovered as many as 90 million long-forgotten doses of smallpox vaccine in its freezers, in a find that ensures the United States an adequate supply in the event of a bioterrorist attack, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

Citing government sources familiar with the find, the newspaper said the discovery could instantly increase six-fold the known US inventory of the vaccine.

The discovery buys time for the federal government and its pharmaceutical contractors, which together have been racing to produce tens of millions of smallpox vaccine doses as part of the new biodefense initiative, the newspaper said.

"It's a great insurance policy," D.A. Henderson, director of the newly created federal Office of Health Preparedness, told the paper.

The newly discovered liquid vaccine doses were produced by Aventis Pasteur of Lyon, France, which has its US operations in Swiftwater, Pennsylvania, the report said.

The newspaper quoted sources as saying the vaccine had been stored in freezers since it was made decades ago. It was not clear why its existence had gone undiscovered for so long and exactly when or by whom it was discovered, the paper said.

A government scientist familiar with the work told the newspaper that studies suggest the Aventis product is fully potent. It's likely that the Aventis product can itself be diluted if necessary, creating far more doses than would be needed in the United States even in the face of a full-blown bioterrorist attack, the official was quoted as saying.

Sources told the Post Aventis was negotiating with the US Department of Health and Human Services with the goal of giving the US government access to the supply.

The newspaper said calls to Aventis were referred to the Department of Health and Human Services, which provided few details but said there were still legal issues that needed to be resolved.

Among the issues to be worked out are how much money, if any, would change hands in the transaction, and the extent to which the company may be relieved of liability should problems with the vaccine arise, the report said.

Smallpox, caused by the variola virus, was eradicated more than two decades ago. The United States and Russia keep the only official supplies of the smallpox virus, but experts fear countries or groups secretly holding samples could unleash the virus in a biological attack. The virus spreads quickly and kills 30% of the people it infects.

The United States has 15 million doses of smallpox vaccine and tests are under way to see if these can be stretched out by diluting them.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, said in February the government will report on the results soon.

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