Flu vaccine contracts

Five drug manufacturers received five-year contracts totaling roughly $1 bil. to accelerate development and production of new cell-based vaccine technologies within the U.S., HHS announces May 4. Solvay received the largest contract ($298.6 mil.) to develop and test vaccines, as well as to develop a master plan to manufacture, formulate, fill and package annual and pandemic vaccines. GlaxoSmithKline received $274.8 mil. for clinical programs for a trivalent seasonal flu vaccine and an H5N1 vaccine. Novartis received $220.5 mil. to augment vaccine research efforts and to aid in establishing a U.S.-based vaccine manufacturing facility. MedImmune received $169.5 mil. to develop cell-based seasonal and pandemic vaccines using technology underlying FluMist. Computer Sciences Corp.'s DynPort Vaccine Co., which is working with Baxter on seasonal and pandemic vaccines, also received an incremental award of $41 mil. toward a pending $242.6 mil. contract...