President Biden dismissed a trip Wednesday to a vaccine maker after a scathing report said the firm’s lobby was leaving the federal medical supplies depot unprepared for the COVID-19 pandemic.
Biden had planned to visit a Baltimore facility run by Emergent BioSolutions, but canceled the trip after Sunday’s report.
“It simply came to our notice then [the White House] it was a more suitable place to hold the meeting, “White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Monday in her daily press session.
“The administration will conduct a thorough review and audit of the national storage,” he said.
Johnson & Johnson and Merck CEOs are expected to meet with Biden to discuss the launch of the third U.S.-approved COVID-19 vaccine. Emergent works with those companies that have 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 sales of an anthrax vaccine, backed by a $ 3 million annual budget since 2010, consumed much of the Strategic National Stockpile’s pre-pandemic purchases, according to reported the New York Times.
Last year, while nurses were carrying garbage bags due to a shortage of protective equipment, the company sold the government $ 626 million in anthrax vaccines, which are being released on shelves if not are used.
According to the report, the anthrax vaccine only slightly improves patient outcomes when supplementing cheap antibiotics. But the company’s anthrax vaccine absorbed 40 percent of national stock funds between 2010 and 2018, although there has been no attack on anthrax since a 2001 letter campaign that went kill five.
Emergent reportedly earned a 75% profit from the anthrax vaccine, the license for which he bought in 1998 in the state of Michigan before raising the price. He reportedly downplayed the effort of a rival company to make a second vaccine.