November 11, 2014
By Riley McDermid, BioSpace.com Breaking News Editor
American lawmakers are shelling out at least $2 billion in contracts to biotech companies like Johnson & Johnson , Emergent BioSolutions Inc. and Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc. as global regulators race to find an Ebola vaccine or cure, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.
Last week President Barack Obama asked Congress for $6.2 billion in emergency funding to help eradicate the disease in West Africa, where it has killed more than 5,000 people and started a global spread that has so far been staunched by health care authorities in first world countries.
So far, American regulators have spent more than $400 million on Ebola projects as of Oct. 24, Emily Cain, a spokeswoman for the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, told Bloomberg.
For its part, Congress has awarded $77 million in Ebola-related contracts this year, a mere slice of the $838 million earmarked for the disease’s treatment and relief efforts.
Brian Friel, a Bloomberg Intelligence contracts analyst, gave the news service the $2 billion estimate, which he said will probably be “no-bid contract awards to ‘make everyone happy.’”
At least 18 companies are currently working on Ebola vaccines and therapies. As part of that effort, Fujifilm announce Tuesday that it expects its influenza drug Avigan to be approved to treat Ebola by the end of this year.
Fujifilm said its current stockpile of Avigan would be enough to treat 20,000 people, with the capacity to make around 300,000 more doses.
