Anthrax Vaccine: Why You Can't Get It
Oct. 10 -- Only one American company is licensed to produce an Anthrax vaccine right now. And yet, at this time of national concern over the deadly bacteria, the company has not passed FDA inspections, and the vaccine is only authorized and intended for government use.
ABCNEWS' Barbara Walters talks to Robert Kramer, President and COO of BioPort Corporation, to find out why.
For Government — Not Civilians
ABCNEWS' BARBARA WALTERS: You make the vaccine only for the government … Why not also make it for civilians?
KRAMER: It will be made available for civilian use at the appropriate time, when we have met all the obligations that we have to the Department of Defense … We have for the last several years maintained and built a stockpile of vaccine, which is available for an emergency use basis if fully supported by FDA … We have enough vaccine to support the anthrax vaccination immunization program that is currently sponsored by the Department of Defense, and at some point in the future, we will have additional vaccine available for civilian use.
WALTERS: At what point in the future?
KRAMER: It'll be several years, but you need to understand that the Department of the Defense and the Department of Health and Human Services are in close cooperation with one another to make sure that if there is an emergency need for the vaccine and by civilians, that they are coordinating and cooperating to do so.
WALTERS: Citizens have been following you and saying: "We want this vaccine." And I understand your phone has been ringing off the hook. What do you say?
KRAMER: We say that for right now, our inventory and production is committed to satisfying the needs of the Department of Defense. However, as Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson has commented upon, he is working, in a cooperative way, with the Department of Defense and the other appropriate health agencies to make sure that, if the need arises, that vaccine will be made available.
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