Saturday - November 12, 2011

A Shot In The Arm For The Economy?

$433M Smallpox Drug Contract to Company Tied to Dem Donor

Scientists are questioning a $433 million government contract for a smallpox drug they say the country doesn’t need, amid concerns over the way the project was secured for a firm tied to a Democratic donor.

The Los Angeles Times reported over the weekend that U.S. officials took unusual steps to award the contract to Siga Technologies. Democratic donor Ronald Perelman has the controlling share of the company.

The article cited emails showing the Obama administration replaced the lead negotiator on the project following complaints from Siga—Siga was apparently concerned about the government’s objections to how much money Siga would make off the deal.

Earlier, in December, the government also reportedly blocked other companies from bidding on the contract in a second round.

Siga ultimately won the contract in May, but some questioned the price of the drug—approximately $255 per dose—and the practicality of the project.

The government already has a smallpox vaccine on reserve. Siga’s pill is meant to help people diagnosed too late for the vaccine to be effective, according to the Times.

Reporting from Washington — Over the last year, the Obama administration has aggressively pushed a $433-million plan to buy an experimental smallpox drug, despite uncertainty over whether it is needed or will work.

Senior officials have taken unusual steps to secure the contract for New York-based Siga Technologies Inc., whose controlling shareholder is billionaire Ronald O. Perelman, one of the world’s richest men and a longtime Democratic Party donor.

When Siga complained that contracting specialists at the Department of Health and Human Services were resisting the company’s financial demands, senior officials replaced the government’s lead negotiator for the deal, interviews and documents show.

When Siga was in danger of losing its grip on the contract a year ago, the officials blocked other firms from competing.

Siga was awarded the final contract in May through a “sole-source” procurement in which it was the only company asked to submit a proposal. The contract calls for Siga to deliver 1.7 million doses of the drug for the nation’s biodefense stockpile. The price of approximately $255 per dose is well above what the government’s specialists had earlier said was reasonable, according to internal documents and interviews.

Once feared for its grotesque pustules and 30% death rate, smallpox was eradicated worldwide as of 1978 and is known to exist only in the locked freezers of a Russian scientific institute and the U.S. government. There is no credible evidence that any other country or a terrorist group possesses smallpox.

Siga’s drug, an antiviral pill called ST-246, would be used to treat people who were diagnosed with smallpox too late for the vaccine to help. Yet the new drug cannot be tested for effectiveness in people because of ethical constraints — and no one knows whether animal testing could prove it would work in humans.

Hey, remember when the media had shit-fits 24-7 over some no-bid contracts awarded to Halliburton and Blackhawk for work in the Iraq war zone, even though no other companies existed that could perform the work in the time and scope necessary? Do you think they’ll wind up their alarm sirens and start screaming over this one, when at least a dozen other companies could have made this drug that may not even work and is probably not even needed? [crickets] [more crickets]

Remember when those same media “watchdogs” went turbo-monkey-poo over “no WMDS” in Iraq, and how Iraq was considered the most likely evil nation to even have a bio-terror capability?

So? So what will they say now? [even more crickets]

Posted by Drew458     on 11/12/2011 at 04:21 PM   
Filed Under: • Government • Corruption and Greed • Medical • War On Terror •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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