President Biden dropped a trip to a vaccine manufacturer on Wednesday after a harsh report said the company’s lobby had left the federal stockpile of medical supplies unprepared for the COVID-19 pandemic.
Biden was scheduled to visit a Baltimore facility run by Emergent BioSolutions, but canceled the trip following Sunday’s report.
“It simply came to our notice then [the White House] it was a better place to have the meeting, “White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Monday in his daily news conference.
“The administration will undertake a comprehensive review and audit of the national stock,” she said.
Johnson & Johnson and Merck CEOs are expected to meet with Biden to discuss the launch of the third US-approved COVID-19 vaccine. Emergent works with those companies under a federal Operation Warp Speed contract. It is unclear whether an emerging representative will attend the White House meeting after the change of venue.
Emergent’s long-term sales of an anthrax vaccine, backed by a $ 3 million annual lobbying budget since 2010, have consumed much of the pre-pandemic acquisitions of the strategic national stock, the New York Times reported.
Last year, as nurses carried garbage bags due to a lack of protective equipment, the company sold the government $ 626 million in anthrax vaccines, which spoil on shelves if not used.
The anthrax vaccine only slightly improves patient outcomes when supplementing with cheap antibiotics, according to the report. But the company’s anthrax vaccine absorbed 40% of national stock funds from 2010 to 2018, even though there has been no anthrax attack since a 2001 letter campaign that killed five.
Emergent reportedly earned a 75% profit on the anthrax vaccine, a license he bought in 1998 from Michigan before raising the price. It seems to have undermined the efforts of a rival company to produce a second vaccine.