http://id.medscape.com/reuters/prof/2001/10/10.19/20011018inds013.html

Merck in Talks With US on Making Smallpox Vaccine

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Oct 18 - Drugmaker Merck & Co. said on Thursday it was in discussions with the US government about the possibility of helping to develop a vaccine against the smallpox virus, in the wake of growing concerns about the threat of bioterrorism.

"We are currently in discussions with the [US Department of] Health and Human Services about producing a smallpox vaccine," Merck spokeswoman Laura Jordan told analysts in a conference call that dealt mainly with the company's third-quarter earnings.

The Whitehouse Station, New Jersey-based firm is among several large US drugmakers that made a smallpox vaccine decades ago but abandoned the business after the disease was declared conquered by health authorities.

In Canada, Gro Harlem Brundtland, director-general of the World Health Organization, said governments around the globe are considering vaccinating entire populations against smallpox and other potential bioterrorism threats.

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